The Parallel Crossing
by SteampunkSherlock
Summary: Kevin Sawyer returns to Mainframe after a lengthy recuperation following the events of Metamorphosis. The Mainframers discover Megabyte's secret bunker and open up a whole multiverse of possibilities!
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1: The Backdoor**

AndrAIa stood before the Gate Command, silently counting down the nanoseconds. The Game Sprite rubbed her swollen tummy as the baby within ceased its latest kicking spell and settled down. She smiled affectionately as thoughts of the future played themselves out in her imagination. Maybe it was the pregnancy messing with her processes, but the longer she carried her child, the brighter the future seemed to get. When AndrAIa reflected on the past, and the long, tumultuous journey they had all endured to reach the present, the more she felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. For the longest time, motherhood had been only a remote possibility. Now, she was finally getting the chance to put down roots with Matrix in the place they both loved.

AndrAIa looked down and said, "Now we just need to get you some cousins."

The Gate Command began to hum as energy fed its capacitors. The humming grew louder until a bright light filled the empty space inside the ring. The light faded after a few nanoseconds, replaced by an undulating field of energy that resembled a pool of silvery fluid. The figure that emerged out of the portal was sprite-like in appearance—it had arms and legs, hands with fingers, and a face beneath a sealed helmet—and clothed in a protective pressure suit. The portal disappeared, and the traveler undid the clasps on his helmet. Kevin Sawyer greeted AndrAIa with a warm smile.

"Welcome back, Kevin," AndrAIa said.

"It's good to be back," Kevin said. "You look as gorgeous as ever."

AndrAIa laughed. She doubted she looked that good. Her figure was not what it had been, and her maternity clothes were a far cry from her old wardrobe.

"You know what they say about pregnant women," she said.

"That they glow? They say it because it's true."

"Sweet talker," AndrAIa said with a chuckle. "I like the beard, by the way. When did you start growing it?"

Kevin rubbed his face and smiled sheepishly. "After I left last time. It hurt to shave while my face healed from all the bruising, so I just let it go. You really like it?"

"It's very distinguished," AndrAIa said. It wasn't the only thing about Kevin's appearance that had changed. He had let his hair grow long as well, the chestnut locks were shaped around his ears and swept back on top, giving his face an almost regal appearance. "In fact, you've made a few changes, haven't you?"

Kevin shrugged. "I just wanted to do something different."

"I see," AndrAIa said. "So it has nothing to do with you turning thirty?"

Kevin pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. "You've been talking to Vivian."

"It may have some up in conversation that you had a birthday while you were gone," AndrAIa said, her head tilted to the side, smiling crookedly. "Vivian made it sound like turning thirty is a milestone for most humans. And I wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't come prepared to mark the occasion." AndrAIa held out her hand. Resting in her palm was a back-and-white icon.

For a nano, Kevin was speechless. "Mine?"

AndrAIa nodded. "I thought you were overdue." Kevin took the icon, holding it between his thumb and index finger. "You can't use it to reboot," she explained, "but I managed to program it with a clothing skin, and it has an active PID signature registered with the Principal Office."

"You mean…"

"That's right," AndrAIa said, "you're officially a citizen of Mainframe."

Kevin held the icon his hands like it was some precious treasure. "AndrAIa…this is… _this is great_. I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," AndrAIa said.

"How do I…?"

"Let me help," AndrAIa said. Kevin handed her the icon back. "Where do you want it?" she asked.

Kevin pointed to the left side of his chest. "Here."

AndrAIa pressed the disk against the fabric of the pressure suit. There was a click, and the icon spun clockwise, whirring mechanically. Kevin had seen how sprites changed clothing skins using their icons. He tapped his icon twice, holding it down on the second tap. His pressure suit vanished as a green wave covered his body from head to toe.

The top was something between a shirt and a military jacket with a standing collar, wide chest pockets, and shoulder straps. The sleeves ended just below the elbow where they disappeared inside polished bronze arm bracers that covered the length of Kevin's forearms, ending just above the wrists. A wide black belt with dual buckles wound around his waist. The pants were made from the same flawless white material as the top, and the legs were tucked into a pair of knee-high leather boots reinforced with bronze plates and plastic buckles.

"Wow!" Kevin exclaimed. "It worked!"

"What do you think of the skin? I designed it myself."

"I look like a million bucks," Kevin said. "Thank you so much, AndrAIa."

"You're welcome, Kevin," she said. "And happy birthday."

Kevin and AndrAIa walked out of the Core Room, passing under a zoom-arch and out through a heavy vault door that hissed closed behind them as they exited. Kevin heard the sound of metal locks falling into place echo up through the hallway as they proceeded leisurely towards an elevator at the end of the corridor.

"When's the baby due?" Kevin asked.

"Not for a while yet," AndrAIa said. "It's a boy."

"Congratulations," said Kevin. "I'll bet Matrix is excited."

"Excited… _nervous_ …"

"Have you picked out any names?" he asked.

"Chip is at the top of the list. We thought about naming him Welman, after his grandfather, but we decided to leave that open for Dot and Bob."

Kevin slowed to a near-halt. "You mean…Bob and Dot…?"

AndrAIa started to giggle uncontrollably. " _No, no, no_ ," she said. "Those two are still figuring out how to be a couple. Co-processing is the furthest thing from Dot's mind."

"Mainframe is Dot's baby," Kevin said, "and Bob needs equal attention."

"Truer words were never— _ah!_ " AndrAIa's hands clasped her stomach as she came to a stop.

Kevin went pale. "What is it?" he asked.

AndrAIa waved her hand. "This kid has his father's temperament," she said. "He just won't stay still." She breathed slowly, exhaling through narrow lips.

Kevin put his hand out. "Can I?"

AndrAIa took his hand and placed it against her stomach. He immediately felt the baby kick.

"Wow," he said. "Little guy's all ready to get out and get started. He'll be fighting Game Cubes with his papa and uncle in no time."

"I think he'll need to learn to walk first," AndrAIa said as they continued on towards the elevator.

"By the way," Kevin asked, "where is Enzo?"

They reached the elevator, its doors parting as they neared. AndrAIa wore an odd, mischievous smirk when she replied, "Driving lessons."

* * *

"Clutch, clutch, _cluuutch!_ " Bob screamed from the passenger seat.

There was a protest of grinding gears as Enzo coaxed Bob's old 262 convertible into third gear. The young sprite pressed down on the accelerator while simultaneously easing off the clutch, forcing the transmission to shift.

"Relax, Bob," Enzo said. "I've got this."

The teenaged sprite turned the wheel and pressed down, diving into a lower skylane above Kit's Sector. In the backseats were Welman and Matrix, both of whom kept tightening their seatbelts as Enzo weaved in between traffic.

"All that circuit racing is finally paying off, huh, Bob?" Matrix called out.

"If I'd only known the monster I was making," the Guardian replied. "Brakes, brakes, _braaakes!_ "

Instead, Enzo hit the gas and pulled up, going over the top of a big rig. The driver blew his horn as the 262 overtook it.

"You forgot to signal, son," Welman said, his voice quivering.

"Thanks, dad," Enzo replied. "I'll remember next time."

"There won't _be_ a next time if you get us nullified," Bob said. "I promised your sister I'd teach you how to drive, not how to break every traffic law in Mainframe."

"If you think I'm a bad driver, just say so," Enzo said.

"It's not that you're a bad driver, son," Welman said, "your enthusiasm is just… _overwhelming_."

"Thanks, dad!"

"That wasn't a compliment," Welman clarified.

Truly, Enzo wasn't a bad driver, but his need for speed outweighed his common sense, and what had started out as a harmless exercise had quickly escalated into a reckless joyride across the skies of Mainframe.

"If you get pulled over, Dot will throw you behind a firewall," Matrix said. "You know that, right?"

"She'll have to catch me first," Enzo said. "Not that it'll be hard in this hunk of junk."

The engine sputtered, and Bob rubbed the dashboard like he was stroking the fur on a cat. "He didn't mean it, baby."

"You do realize Dot made us use your car because she didn't want me driving her jeep," Enzo said.

"Dot's jeep is an automatic," Welman said. "I've always said that if you can drive stick, you can drive anything."

"So, how's my driving?" Enzo asked. "Do I get a passing grade?"

"You drive like you're in a Game Cube," Matrix said.

"Thanks, bro," Enzo said.

"That wasn't a compliment, either," Matrix retorted.

As they neared the ports, Enzo noticed a ship enter the system. It was a beauty: double decks, triple masted, and engines big enough to outrun any ship in the Guardian Armada.

"Is that who I think it is?" Enzo asked.

Bob peered through the windshield and nodded. "It's Captain Capacitor. That must be _The Saucy Mare's Revenge_. Dot mentioned that he'd started running cargo again."

"Alphanumeric," Enzo said. "Let's go say hi. I haven't seen Gavin since the wedding."

Enzo floored the accelerator and the 262's engine sputtered and moaned in response, but it complied nonetheless.

Bob patted the dashboard affectionately. "Easy girl. Just hold together a little longer. I promise I'll never let the crazy teenager sit behind the wheel ever again."

Enzo rolled his eyes. "Relax, Bob, I've—"

"If you say 'I've got this' one—more— _time—_ "

"Here's our exit," Enzo said quickly, "hang on!"

He made a hard left and angled the nose of the car downward again, passing in between another big rig and a corvette on the way down. That time he remembered his turn signal.

* * *

Dot was in her usual place in the War Room, at the center station on the balcony level. She turned and smiled as Kevin and AndrAIa entered. Then, in a display of warmth that took Kevin completely by surprise, Dot gave him a hug.

"It's good to have you back," Dot said. "Tom and Vivian kept us informed while you were recovering. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I took a whole month off to take care of myself," Kevin said. "I'm a hundred percent. Seriously, it'll take more than a supervirus to kill me."

"Glad to hear it," Dot said. She tapped his new icon. "And by the way. Happy birthday. I hear turning thirty is a big deal where you come from."

Kevin turned to AndrAIa and whispered, "Does _everyone_ know?"

At that moment, Specky walked by and handed a vidpad off to Dot. "Happy Birthday, Dr. Sawyer," he said. "Nice to have you back. Congratulations on turning thirty. I heard that's a big milestone for humans." He returned to his station on the lower level of the War Room.

"I will have my revenge," Kevin whispered. "It will be swift, and no one will see it coming."

AndrAIa suppressed the urge to burst out laughing, Kevin tried to look menacing (and failed), and Dot frowned at whatever she was reading on the vidpad.

"Well, it looks like we're going to be overclocking this second," Dot said.

"What's the problem?" asked AndrAIa.

"Specky just did a scan of the Archives," Dot said. "Looks like he's found an anomaly."

"What kind of anomaly?" asked Kevin.

"It's an inconsistent signature," Dot explained. "The contents of the file doesn't match the hash. Usually that means a corrupted file, but we've never had a bad file in the Archives that wasn't tampered with."

"Could it be a system error from the incident last minute?" asked Kevin. "The whole system was transformed into a Game Grid."

"The restore function would've fixed any problems in the Archives," AndrAIa said. "This must be something new."

"Or old," Dot added. "It could be a corrupted file held over from the restart. Either way, we'll need to do a visual inspection of the Archives."

"Dot, that could take all cycle," AndrAIa said. "There has to be a way for us to narrow the search."

"If Mouse were here, she could probably modify the sensors in a nano," Dot said.

"So Mouse is gone?" asked Kevin.

"She and Ray left Mainframe almost two cycles ago," Dot said. "He took her surfing in the Web."

Kevin felt an uncomfortable weight slip off his shoulders. He had dreaded seeing Mouse, even though the hacker had made it clear that there were no burned bridges between them. "Y'know, I happen to be a decent programmer myself," he said, cracking his knuckles.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Dot asked. "Enzo wanted to take you jet diving for your birthday."

"Then I'll work until he gets here," Kevin said. "Speaking of Enzo, I heard something about driving lessons. Who'd you recruit for that job?"

* * *

Enzo landed the 262 by the docks, and the engine gave a final sigh of exhaustion and died. Bob immediately leapt out and popped the hood, inspecting the car's innards. Welman stumbled, holding to the side of the car for support. The gyros on his nullsuit needed to be recalibrated after suffering through Enzo's aerial acrobatics.

"Am I ready for the road, big me?" Enzo asked Matrix.

"You'll be lucky if Bob ever lets you drive his car again," Matrix said. "I think you killed it."

"That thing's been brought back to life more times than Frankenome's Monster," Enzo quipped.

Matrix chuckled. "C'mon, kid. Let's go say hi to the pirates."

The Matrix brothers approached the docking port where _The Saucy Mare's Revenge_ was anchored. Capacitor's new ship was bigger than her predecessor and every bit as elegant. From the poop deck, a crimson-cloaked binome called down to the docks.

"Ahoy, there," Capacitor said. "Be that the renegade Guardian Enzo Matrix?"

"Aye, it is," Matrix shouted. "Permission to come aboard, captain?"

"Permission granted, sir!" replied the Crimson Binome.

Enzo and Matrix climbed the gangplank to the main deck. The new _Mare_ looked like she had just rolled off the assembly line. Her decks were polished to a high shine and barely had a scratch on her anywhere.

"Who's that with you, Matrix?" asked Capacitor, accompanied by his right-hand binome, Mr. Christopher. "He looks familiar."

"It's me, Captain," Enzo said. "Little Enzo."

Both binome's eyes went wide with surprise. "By the code, lad!" exclaimed Capacitor. "What do they feed you Matrix boys?"

"It's a long story, Gavin," Matrix said. "I'm glad to see you're back in business. Hauling cargo?"

"Aye, m'lad, and business is booming now that the Guardians have relaxed those trade restrictions imposed by Daemon."

"Didn't Dot have something to do with that?" Enzo asked.

"Your sister helped negotiate a new intersystem trade agreement," Christopher said. "Thanks to her, we have access to more systems than ever before."

"Where is your lovely sister, boys?" asked Capacitor. "Tiz been a long while since I last saw Dot."

"You know Dot," Matrix said, "always busy. She's—"

" _Look out below!"_ someone shouted.

Enzo had just enough time to look up and see someone come swinging down on a rope. The sprite must've meant to come to a skidding stop on the main deck, but her trajectory was off just enough to send her plowing into Enzo. The young sprite had the wind knocked from his lungs as he went flailing backwards, hitting the deck with a solid thud. All his pain and discomfort seemed to vanish as his eyes focused on the girl who had collided with him.

She was thin with strong, wiry limbs. Her golden yellow hair was cut pixie-style, and her skin was bubblegum pink. She pushed herself up, straddling Enzo.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to do that. You make a nice cushion, though."

"No problem," Enzo hissed breathlessly.

She wore a black leather motorcycle vest and baggy buccaneer breeches that were tied off just below her knees, displaying a pair of sculpted calves. The sleeves of her shirt were loose and frilled at the cuffs, the front split open halfway to the chest and held together by a single crisscrossed string. If Enzo wasn't already breathless, he would've had his breath taken away.

The girl stood up and offered him a helping hand. "I'm Zoe."

Enzo recovered enough sense to take it and get to his feet, grinning lopsidedly as he did so. He was a full head taller than her, and they looked to be about the same age. He swallowed the lump in his throat and introduced himself. "I'm Enzo. Enzo Matrix."

"You were the one driving the convertible, weren't you?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, that was me."

"You've got good taste," Zoe said. "The 262 is a classic. How long have you had it?"

"I…ah…" Enzo was keenly aware that he was being watched by his older brother, Capacitor, and Mr. Christopher, each of whom knew that the 262 belonged to Bob. For a moment, he teetered on the knife's edge, unsure of whether to err on the side of caution and tell the truth or fib to impress the girl. He decided it was more important to impress the girl. "Not long. My friend and I work on it together in our free time. It's kind of a clunker, but it gets me from A to B."

"Shiny," Zoe said.

Matrix shook his head and rolled his eyes as he recalled his first encounter with AndrAIa. What wouldn't a Matrix boy say to impress the girl?

"The boy's digging himself a hole with both hands," Capacitor said.

"Who is she?" Matrix asked.

"Zoe is from Proxima, one of the systems on our trade route," Christopher said. "This is her second voyage with us."

"She's a good lass," Capacitor said. "Headstrong. Reliable. She has a reputation as a bit of a rebel-rouser in her home system, but she hasn't caused us any trouble."

"In other words, she's a female version of Enzo," Matrix muttered. "Like throwing fuel on a fire."

He watched the two interact out of the corner of his eye, saw the sparks flying, and Matrix wondered if Enzo was really ready for girls. Physically speaking, he was compiled enough that showing interest in the opposite sex wasn't strange, but Enzo had skipped a couple of upgrades, and Matrix had to wonder if his little brother was mentally ready for romance.

 _Looks like Enzo's life is about to get even more complicated_ , Matrix thought.

* * *

"Greetings, Dr. Sawyer," Phong said. "I'm glad to see you've recovered."

Kevin was seated at a console on the lower level of the War Room. Before him was a set of vidwindows filled with lines of code. "Thanks, Phong," Kevin replied. "I'm glad to be back."

The drawer in Phong's torso opened, and the old sprite produced a single cupcake from within its transfinite depths. It had a single candle. "Happy belated birthday. May your best cycles always lie ahead of you."

Kevin smiled and took the cupcake. "I appreciate that, Phong. Thanks."

"How's that new scanning algorithm coming along?" asked Dot.

"I'm finished," Kevin replied. "I just added the new feature to the sensor array. Beginning deep scan now." He pressed a button on a nearby console and the scan progress appeared on the large main vidwindow above the floor map. Within nanoseconds, the scan returned a single anomalous entry.

"Bingo," Kevin said. "I think I've found what we're looking for, and it's not a corrupted file."

"What is it?" asked AndrAIa.

"It's a hidden file," Kevin said. "I can't tell what it is."

"Guess we'll have to physically go down there after all," Dot said. She opened a vidwindow and contacted Bob. The feed showed the Guardian bent at the waist, leaning over the open engine compartment of his convertible. "Hey, Bob."

Startled, Bob jerked his head and banged it against the hood. "Ow."

"Oops. Sorry," Dot said. "Engine trouble?"

Mainframe's Guardian rubbed the back of his head and frowned at the vidwindow. "More like Enzo trouble."

"What happened?" AndrAIa asked.

"Enzo put the old girl through her paces. I'm afraid she just couldn't keep up."

"Bob, I asked you to teach Enzo how to drive," Dot said, "not how to outrun the Superhighway Patrol."

"Teaching him to drive isn't the problem," Bob said. "Teaching him how to separate driving from joyriding is."

Kevin joined Dot and AndrAIa at the vidwindow. "Sounds like the kid's got a lead foot."

"That's putting it mildly," Bob said. "Glad to see you're back, Kevin. When did you get in?"

"Just a few microseconds ago," Kevin replied.

"Kevin's detected a hidden file in the Archives that we can't identify," Dot explained. "We need you and Matrix back at the Principal Office."

"But my car…"

"Don't worry," Dot said, "I'll call a tow. And I promise to have a talk with Enzo when I see him."

"That may be a while," Welman said as he stepped into the visual range of the vidwindow. "I think someone new has caught Enzo's attention."

"Some _one_ …?" AndrAIa prodded.

* * *

"So what do you do for fun around here?" asked Zoe as they walked together. "Besides working on old cars."

"Actually, I was going to take a friend of mine jet diving for his birthday," Enzo replied. They reached the end of the gangplank.

"That sounds pixellicious!"

"You should come," Enzo said, feeling his heart skip with excitement.

"I don't wanna be a third subroutine," she said.

"Hey, it's supposed to be a party," Enzo said, hoping to persuade her. "The more the merrier."

" _Wellll_ ," Zoe began. "First I have to help download all our cargo. That'll take the rest of the second."

"That's fine," Enzo said, "we can meet up at my sister's diner after you're done…" Then Enzo felt his heart sink a little. "…unless, you leave right after you're done?"

"We'll be docked for a little while as we take on new supplies," Zoe said. She turned and cupped her hand next to her mouth. "Hey, skipper, are we at liberty?"

"Not while _The Mare's Revenge_ is still full of cargo, lass," replied Capacitor from over the rail of the main deck. "But after we've made our delivery, you can have all the liberty you want."

Zoe turned to Enzo and smiled. "I'd better get to work, then," she said, slowly backing up the gangplank, hands clasped behind her. "I'll see you later?"

" _Great!_ I mean…yeah, cool. Dot's Diner in Baudway. I'll see you there."

"K," Zoe said, smiling. "Bye." She turned and ran back up to the main deck.

Enzo stood at the bottom, watched as she disappeared, and remained standing even after she was gone.

Matrix, from his vantage point above, watched as his young backup— _He's your little brother,_ Matrix thought. _You can't think of him as a copy anymore, can you?_ —spun on his heel and meandered back towards the car, his face stuck in an idiotic grin.

"The boy's got it bad," Capacitor said with a knowing smile.

"I'll say," Matrix said. "Look at him. A Game Cube could come crashing down, and he wouldn't even care."

"Ah, to be young again," Capacitor said. The old binome removed his hat and wiped his brow. "And all the growing pains that come with it."

"Hey, Matrix," Bob called, "Dot needs us at the Archives."

"I'll be right down," Matrix replied. He turned to Gavin and the two old friends shook hands. "I'll make sure Dot finds time to visit, Captain, don't you worry. And if you're going to be in Mainframe for a while, be sure to drop by the diner. I know there's always a seat open for you."

"Aye, my boy, I'll do that. Take care, now."

Matrix decompressed his zip-board and flew away, headed in the direction of the Principal Office.

"He seems much more pleasant than last time," said Mr. Christopher.

"It's good to see the lad has mellowed," said Capacitor. "Life's far too short to be angry at its unjustness. Let's just hope it sticks, eh, Mr. Christopher?"

"From your mouth to the User's ears, sir."

The Crimson Binome placed his hat back on his balding head and returned to the business of unloading the hull of his beloved ship. "Look _alive_ there, Mr. Edwards! I'm not paying you by the millisecond!"

* * *

Bob and Matrix landed outside the entrance to the Mainframe Archives and compressed their zip-boards. The two sprites approached the reinforced metal door until a vidwaindow popped open in front of them.

"State name," said the automated voice of Mainframe.

"Bob, Guardian 452," Bob replied.

His voice pattern was analyzed and the automated voice responded with, "Access granted," in its predictable monotone. The vidwindow disappeared and the layers of physical security between them and the Archives parted one after the other, finally revealing the long concrete hallway beyond.

Matrix and Bob opened up their zip-boards again and glided down the corridor, entering the vast, endless space that was Mainframe's Central Archives. The room had transfinite parameters, a complicated term that simply meant the room was bigger on the inside than on the out. The voluminous space was filled with vidwindows in all directions. Beyond, there was only darkness, the boundaries of the room being so far away as to be invisible.

"Haven't been in here in a while," Matrix said.

Bob opened a vidwindow to the War Room. "Matrix and I are in the Archives, Dot."

"Stand by," Dot replied. "I'm sending you the file signature now. You should be able to scan for it with Glitch."

Bob tapped his keytool's cogwheel face and saw a green progress bar followed by a green checkmark. "Got it," he said. "Glitch: active scan."

The keytool made several computational chirps and its cogwheel face expanded, the screen displaying the location of the encrypted file in relation to the entrance.

Bob pointed off into the distance. "This way."

* * *

While Dot, Kevin, and AndrAIa tracked Bob and Matrix's progress through the Archives, Enzo and Welman entered the War Room.

"After today, I don't think you'll be getting behind the wheel of _any_ vehicle, young man," Welman said.

"But I already promised Bob that I'd pay for replacement parts," Enzo said.

Dot's hands went to her hips as she spun around and locked eyes with Enzo, a frown on her ruby red lips. "And you'll pay for the tow I had to call, too. That's at least two cycles worth of dishes at the diner."

"That's a total tear," Enzo whined. "Bob's car barely runs. It could've died because the wind was blowing the wrong way."

"Wanna make it three cycles?" asked Dot.

Enzo threw up his hands. "Fine, three cycles. But you have to talk Bob into letting me borrow the car."

Dot went from upset to flabbergasted in 0.9 nanos flat. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow quizzically. "You just volunteered to work an extra cycle at the diner. Because you need to _borrow_ Bob's car?"

"Do you think you can convince him?" Enzo asked.

"Why do you need Bob's car?" asked Dot.

Enzo looked from Dot to AndrAIa to Kevin, and quickly realized he'd said too much. " _Heyyy_ , Kevin. Glad you're back, man. Up for some jet diving later? My treat on account you turned the big three-oh while you were gone. Does that make you old or something? By the way, nice beard. It makes you look…" Enzo tilted his head back slightly and stuck out his chin.

Kevin smiled, seeing the boy's deflection for what it was. "What's her name?"

"What's whose name?" Enzo asked, feigning ignorance.

"C'mon, Enzo, you're still blushing," Kevin said.

Enzo's hands went to his cheeks, but he dropped them after he saw the grins spreading among the adults. He rolled his eyes. "How'd you know?"

"A teenaged boy wants the car for the weekend," Kevin said, tapping his chin. "I think I've heard this story before."

"Enzo's got a girl _friend_ ," AndrAIa said in a sing-song voice.

The young sprite blew air through compressed lips, his cheeks reddening.

"Aww snap," Kevin said. "The secret's out."

There was a bout of laughter at Enzo expense as he shuffled his feet and shook his head, hands perched on his hips. "I hope you're all bitten by nulls."

Dot placed a comforting arm about Enzo's shoulders and spun his baseball cap. "We're just teasing, sweetie," she said, her irritation now dissolved.

"So…what's her name," AndrAIa asked, "and how did you meet her?"

"Her name's Zoe," Enzo said, "and she's a member of Capacitor's crew."

"Gavin?" Dot asked. "Oh, no! I can't believe I forgot _The Mare's Revenge_ was coming in today."

"Relax, Dot," Enzo said. "Matrix told me to remind you. He gave Gavin an open invitation to the diner."

"That's perfect," Dot said with a smile. "You can invite your new friend, too."

The teenager froze, petrified at the thought, and tried to clear his throat. "Uh…sure. Sure, I could do that. Or, counter proposal: how about not?"

"What's the matter Enzo?" asked Dot. "Afraid we'll cramp your style?"

"C'mon, Little Sparky," AndrAIa said. "We wanna meet her. We know she must be special."

Enzo was spared further embarrassment by Bob. "We've found the location of the encrypted file," he said. Everyone turned their attention to the live feed coming from the main vidwindow.

 _Thanks, Bob,_ Enzo thought. _You just bailed me out big time_.

* * *

"There's nothing here," Matrix said.

The vidwindows within the Archives were arranged in a layered, spherical pattern with the entrance in the center. Each layer was staggered, and Bob and Matrix had moved in between the spaces separating the layers, and they now faced a gap where a vidwindow should have been, but wasn't.

"This is where the unknown file signature is coming from," Bob said.

"Dot said it was hidden," said Matrix. The renegade Guardian circled around the space on his zip-board until he saw something appear between himself and Bob. It was like a sliver of metal, barely there, and reflecting just enough light to be noticed by the trained eye. "It's not just hidden. It's compressed, too." Matrix grabbed the sliver and pulled, revealing a tall vidwindow. Someone had modified the window so that it was visible in only one direction!

It displayed the two-dimensional image of a riveted metal door.

"Is that what I think it is?" Bob asked.

Matrix nodded. "A backdoor. Question is: where does it go?"

* * *

Dot led Kevin down the access corridor into the Archives, followed by a team of CPU troops. The human cybernaut gazed around him in open wonder, unable to process how a room could be physically bigger on the inside.

"It's a TARDIS," he mumbled. "Their basement is a TARDIS. Why not?"

He followed Dot on his zip-board and met up with Matrix and Bob.

"Glad you could join us," Bob said.

"I brought along some backup, just in case," said Dot.

"Good idea, sis," Matrix said. He had Gun in his hand, ready to pour hot lead into whatever waited on the other side.

"Who made this?" Kevin asked. "It's obvious none of you knew it was here."

Bob positioned himself in front of the door. "There's only one way to find out." The Guardian double tapped the vidwindow and the metal door popped out slightly, becoming three dimensional.

"Wow," Kevin whispered.

Bob turned the knob and push the door open. On the other side was a dark room. Light from the Archives spilled through the doorway, creating indistinct shapes in the gloom beyond the threshold. Bob led the CPUs through the backdoor, Glitch raised. Flashlight beams illuminated the space, revealing the industrial floor of a large factory. Robotic welders stood motionless and frozen above half-completed Assault Binome Carriers on an assembly line. Spare parts, derelict and rusting, laid strewn about, and there were rows and rows of metal shelves everywhere.

Hanging from the scaffold ceiling was a banner, the green viral skull against a black background.

"Megabyte." The name left Matrix's lips with a hiss.

"I always suspected he had a secret base hidden somewhere in Mainframe," Dot said. "It was the only way he could've armed his followers so quickly after he returned from the Web. But I never knew where to look."

Kevin ran a finger along the edge of a metal shelf and blew away the dust. "Doesn't look like anybody's been home for a while."

"I'll take that as a good omen," Bob said. "Somebody find a light switch."

The CPUs spread out while Kevin remained with Bob, Dot, and Matrix.

"Glitch: locator beacon." The keytool chirped and a red blinking dot appeared on its circular screen over a map of the system. "We're in G-Prime sector, right beneath where Silicon Tor used to be."

"Figures," Dot said. "This place is probably his original weapons factory."

"How is it even still here?" asked Matrix. "I thought the User's virus scan decompiled everything with a viral signature after the restart."

"Megabyte was in the Principal Office for a long time," Bob said. "He could've partitioned off a subsector and filed a backup in the Archives. That must've been the backdoor we found."

"And a virus scan of Mainframe wouldn't read a separate partition," Dot finished. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Megabyte always was tricky." Dot opened a vidwindow to Phong in the War Room. "Phong, I need you to send a team of lab techs to catalogue and inventory every piece of equipment in here. I want it all in Quarantine before the end of the second."

"A wise precaution, my child. It will be done."

Kevin borrowed a couple of spare flashlights from the CPUs, handing one to Matrix. "Megabyte was the worst doomsday prepper I've ever seen. Are those Scud missiles in the corner?"

"No wonder Megabyte raised an army so fast last time," Matrix said.

"Well, it won't help him now," Bob said. "Maybe we can put some of it to good use."

Kevin decided to go exploring on his own and peeled away from Matrix, headed in between two sets of tall, metal shelves.

Matrix called after him. "Hey, Sawyer." Kevin turned around. "Welcome back."

"Thanks, Matrix. It's good to see you, too."

Matrix nodded and then disappeared behind some shelves. Kevin resumed exploring the weapons lab but halted again when he heard Matrix call out, "And nice job making it all the way to thirty or whatever."

Kevin closed his eyes and sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2: The R.A.M.M.**

Herr Doktor sat in the interrogation room, hands clasped sedately in his lap. Bob and Matrix stood across from him, on the other side of a long table. The viral binome remained silent, waiting to see which one was going to play the bad cop.

He didn't have to wait long. The renegade Guardian sat down on the opposite side of the table, placed his weapon on the table, and gave it a twirl. Herr Doktor watched as the formidable firearm slowly spun itself out, coming to a stop with the barrel pointed straight at him. The mad scientist's eye went wide. Matrix leaned back in his chair.

"Go for it," he said with a wicked grin. "Please."

Herr Doktor cleared his throat. "Ah, no. No, thank you. I'm fine."

"Good," Bob said. "We want you to be comfortable. You are comfortable, aren't you, doctor?"

The one binome looked from Bob to Matrix, saw the renegade's gold eye rotate in its socket and glow malevolently, and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Why, yes. Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because we need information from you," said Bob. "We found Megabyte's secret base in G-Prime Sector."

"I am afraid I do not know vat you are…uh…um…" He saw the hints of a frown pulling at the corners of Matrix's lips. "Oh! Oh, you mean zat secret base! Ja, ja, of course. I know of it."

"Good. We want a list of all the tech Megabyte kept stored there," Bob said.

"And I'll be here to help you remember everything," Matrix added with emphasis.

"Of course, of course, ja. Zat is no problem." Bob placed a blank miniaturized vidwindow and a stylus on the table. "You mean now?"

"Is that a problem?" Bob asked.

"Vell, there is so much," Herr Doktor said, shaking nervously. "Unt Lord Megabyte did not share everything wit me."

"Why not?" asked Matrix. "You were his chief scientist."

"Ja, but some projects Megabyte verked on alone," Herr Doktor said. "Zere are many things he kept secret, even from me. Things no mortal was meant to meddle wit."

Bob and Matrix exchanged brief, concerned looks. "Start writing," Matrix ordered.

* * *

Enzo let loose a long whistle as he entered the weapons factory through the backdoor, Frisket on his heels. "Wow. So this was Megabreath's super secret clubhouse."

"No super villain should be without one," Kevin quipped. "Does your sister know you're in here?"

"What Dot doesn't know won't hurt her," Enzo replied.

"Uh huh," said Kevin. "You're already on thin ice, kiddo. Shouldn't you be bussing tables at the diner or something?"

"We never negotiated a start time," Enzo said. "It was more like a guarantee of services to be rendered sometime in the future."

"The _far_ future, you mean?"

Enzo grinned. "Exactly."

Kevin shook his head and tossed the young sprite a spare flashlight. "You're not nearly as clever as you think, Enzo, but as long as you're here, you can help catalogue this stuff." He pointed the beam of his flashlight at a stack of tags on a nearby table. "Red tags are for anything that looks like it's meant to melt your face off. Green tags are for anything that looks like it won't melt your face off."

"And the yellow ones?" Enzo asked.

"Stuff that might melt your face off," Kevin clarified.

"Got it," Enzo said. He grabbed a few of each kind of tag, stuffed them in his back pocket, and then set off to explore the room. "Bark if you sniff anything interesting," Enzo said to Frisket.

" _Ruff_ ," the canine replied. Frisket put his nose to the ground and began his own exhaustive search of the compound.

The youth grew bored within ten microseconds. Nothing he saw looked even remotely interesting. The shelves he inspected were stocked with spare parts, ammunition, and rusting machinery. He came across a familiar looking rifle and held it in his hands, testing its heft. It had a long, square barrel, a bulbous receiver coil, and was absent a stock.

"I wonder," he muttered.

Enzo took the rifle into the center of the factory floor where he had more space to test it. He aimed the rifle at an incomplete ABC and pulled the trigger. There was only a little kick (the rifle was pneumatically driven) and a small square of rubber was expelled from the barrel. The rubber square quickly expanded and inflated, forming a life raft which fell on top of the skeletal ABC.

"Figures," Enzo muttered, slapping a green tag on the gun and tossing it over his shoulder. "Weak-ascii BSnP. No wonder Tin Butt always lost."

The beam of Enzo's flashlight revealed a set of concrete stairs leading down to another level of the compound. Feeling bold, Enzo hopped down the steps until he reached the bottom where his flashlight beam fell on a stainless steel vault door stamped with numerous warning and caution signs.

"Jackpot," Enzo said. He grabbed the spokes on the lock wheel and tried to spin it. The young sprite heaved with every muscle in his back, legs, and arms, but the lock, whether through disuse or lack of hydraulic power, wouldn't budge. He ran back up the stairs and summoned Kevin. "Hey! I've found something."

Kevin joined him at the bottom of the stairwell, eyeing the vault door warily. "You tried to open it, didn't you?" It was phrased as a statement of fact, not a question.

Enzo shrugged. "Don't you wanna know what's inside?"

Kevin shone his light on the multiple warnings posted on the door. "I know you can read. Whatever's in there must be dangerous."

"Is it bad that makes me want to open it even more?" Enzo asked in an excited whisper.

Kevin sucked his lips. "I know how you feel," he admitted reluctantly.

Enzo slapped him on the shoulder. "C'mon, give me a hand. Between the two of us, I'll bet we can budge the lock."

Kevin took one side of the wheel, Enzo the other. Kevin pushed up on his spoke while Enzo pushed down, and after several nanoseconds of strain, the wheel finally moved. Micron by micron, the rusty locks retracted and the door nudged open a crack. There was a hiss of escaping air as pressures equalized, and Kevin swung the vault door open on squeaky hinges.

The room on the other side was small, practically a broom closet in dimensions, and it contained only one item sitting on a pedestal inside a square glass case. The glass facing the door was etched with the words "Random Access Memory Machine."

Kevin pulled the glass case off the pedestal and sat it on the floor. The device looked like a kind of handheld computer or remote control. It had an orange plastic case, a large blank LED screen, a narrow neck for a grip, and a fat, square bottom.

"That's it!?" Enzo exclaimed.

Kevin tried to mask his own disappointment. Even he had expected something on par with the Ark of the Covenant or the Terminator's severed metal arm. "Hmm. It does seem a bit much for a universal TV remote."

Kevin picked it up and turned it over in his hands, his finger rubbing against small slide switch inlaid on the side of the case. He pushed it into the on position and the device beeped, the screen displaying information in binary code.

He handed the RAMM to Enzo and asked, "Can you read this?"

The teen scanned the screen and frowned. "I don't get it."

"What's it say?" asked Kevin.

"It just says 'Origin' followed by a bunch of characters and numbers. Then underneath that it says 'Current Location' and some more characters and numbers. And beneath that it says 'Destination' and, guess what: characters and numbers." On the square bottom of the remote was a selector switch. "It looks like you use this to toggle between Origin and Destination. It won't let you select Current Location."

"Select Destination and press that button there below the screen," Kevin instructed.

Enzo toggled the menu selector so that the word 'Destination' was highlighted and pressed the green button located just below the LED screen. The menu options changed.

"That's weird," Enzo said.

"What's it say?"

"It's a list. It starts with 'Mainframe-Two.' Then 'Mainframe-Three', '-Four', and on and on like that." Enzo toggled down through the menu. "It just keeps going for… _every_ entry in the list."

"Select Mainframe-Two," Kevin suggested.

Enzo rolled his eyes. "What for?"

"Don't you want to see what happens?"

Enzo toggled to the Mainframe-Two entry on the list. "A whole lot of nothing, I'll bet."

He pressed the selector button and both Enzo and Kevin doubled over, clasping their heads. A wave of vertigo sent them to their knees, and they held on to each other for support. Kevin worked his jaw furiously, making his ears pop. Enzo breathed slowly through pinched lips, trying to suppress the urge to empty the contents of his stomach.

"What the Dell was that?" he moaned.

"Something," Kevin replied, trying to shake the fog that was penetrating his brain. "A whole lot of something." He felt dizzy, lightheaded, unable to focus, but the more he made his ears pop, the better he felt. "We went through some kind of pressure change. Try working your jaw like you're chewing gum."

Enzo complied, and nodded. "Yeah. That feels better."

Kevin looked around and noticed their surroundings had changed. "Enzo...where are we?"

They were no longer in the vault beneath Megabyte's secret base. Somehow, they had moved outside into the open. Above them, the skies of Mainframe were dark gray and foreboding, the menacing color of a thunderstorm.

"I thought it was nice today," said Kevin. "Were we supposed to get some weather this second?"

"Uh, Kevin," Enzo said. The youth's tone was urgent, frightened even.

The cybernaut turned and saw Enzo staring up at a tall, monolithic structure. It was a tower of red metal with a face shaped like the beak of some enormous bird. In fact, the building's design evoked the image of a bird of prey, wings folded, waiting and alert, an impassive face gazing out over a killing ground.

"I don't remember seeing anything like that in G-Prime," Kevin said.

"That's because it wasn't there before," said Enzo. "It hasn't been there since the restart."

"What is it?"

"That's Silicon Tor!" Enzo exclaimed. "That's Megabyte's lair!"


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3: Megaframe Revisited**

Bob entered Dot's office and placed Herr Doktor's list on the desktop.

"That was fast," Dot said.

"Matrix is very persuasive," said Bob. He sat down and relaxed while Dot put on her reading glasses.

"There's a lot here," Dot said as she scrolled through the items listed on the vidpad. "Is this a comprehensive list?"

"The Doktor said Megabyte didn't include him in every project. We might find a few surprises."

"I'll tell the recovery teams to exercise caution," said Dot.

"Why not have Hack and Slash do it?" Bob asked. "If it is Megabyte's old weapons factory, they probably know the layout."

"I would, but they're too terrified to set foot inside," she said.

"Of course they are," Bob said.

Dot removed her glasses and pressed her fingers against her right temple, rubbing gently.

"Everything okay?" Bob asked.

"I just thought we'd finally put Megabyte behind us," Dot said.

Bob rose from his seat and stood behind Dot's chair. His fingers began to knead the tense muscles in her neck and shoulders, and Dot felt her body quickly turn to jelly under the Guardian's ministrations.

"Better?" asked Bob.

"Mmmmm."

"I'll take that as a yes." Bob found a particularly tight bundle and worked it out using greater pressure.

Dot half moaned, half sighed, "You're too good at this."

"Are you sleeping okay?" he asked. He pressed his thumbs into her neck, rubbing the spot just below where the spine met the skull. The command-dot-com was practically putty in his hands.

"You know I am," Dot breathed.

Bob grinned and leaned down to plant a kiss on Dot's temple. "Take the rest of the second off," Bob suggested. "Go have lunch with Capacitor. Mainframe can manage without its command-dot-com for a few milliseconds."

In the past, Dot would've brushed aside any suggestion of taking a breather, but much had changed in the last half-hour, the arrival of Kevin Sawyer notwithstanding. She had made a commitment after her breakdown to do a better job of living life rather than working through it, burning the data tape at both ends. Still, old habits died hard.

 _But that's why I have Bob and his magic fingers_ , she thought.

Dot stood up and rewarded her boyfriend's diligence with a kiss. "Thanks for the advice. I think I'll take it. Cover for me here?"

"Not a problem."

Dot smiled and whispered in his ear, "I'll make it up to you later." She planted another quick kiss on his jaw and they entered the War Room hand-in-hand.

"Specky," said Dot, "I'm stepping out for a little bit. Phong's in charge. Make sure the recovery team coordinates with him."

The lab technician nodded and snapped a quick salute. "Yes, sir-ma'am!"

"Have a good time with Capacitor," Bob said.

"I'll be back soon," seemingly hesitant to leave.

Phong tried to reassure the command-dot-com that she was not being negligent. "Worry not, my child," the old binome soothed. "The War Room is not going anywhere."

Dot took one last look around, waved goodbye, and left.

"Phong, sir?"

"Yes? What is it, Specky?"

"The recovery teams have lost track of Dr. Sawyer," the lab technician said, "and he's not responding to any vidwindow requests."

"That's odd," Bob said. "AndrAIa gave him an icon, didn't she?"

"Yes, sir," Specky replied.

"Glitch: system scan. Track and lock on Kevin Sawyer."

The keytool's cogwheel face spun and a square screen popped out of its rectangular base. After a few nanoseconds, Glitch returned a negative search result.

"That's odd," Bob said. "I'm not getting a signal."

"I added his PID code to the Registry myself," Phong said. "Either he is in a shielded location, or he's left the system."

Bob scratched his head, suddenly feeling worried. "I wonder where he could be."

* * *

Mainframe was nearly a ghost town. Kevin and Enzo wandered out of Ghetty Prime sector and hardly saw a soul with the exception of a few dirty, homeless-looking binomes. Then, near the border between Baudway and G-Prime, they came across a giant crater that seemed to reach all the way to the bottom level of the system. The edges were perfectly square, each side exactly half a mile in length. It was as though a whole section of Baudway had been surgically cut and amputated.

"Is this what a Game Cube does if you lose?" Kevin asked.

Enzo nodded. "Everything's nullified. But how could this have happened? We would've known. And where are the first responders?"

Kevin shook his head, having spotted some rusting metal scaffolding in the pit. "I don't think this happened recently, Enzo. It looks like it happened a long time ago."

"That doesn't make any sense," Enzo said.

"Think hard," Kevin said. "Has Mainframe ever lost a Game?"

"Well, yeah, but not for a long time," Enzo said. "Not since my program started running." As if he could read his mind, Enzo suddenly knew where Kevin was headed. "You don't think...aw, _man_. Time travel _again?_ "

"If we have traveled through time then we need to get back as fast as we can," Kevin said. "The RAMM must have a recall function. See if you can find it on the main menu."

The shadow of an ABC passed over Enzo and Kevin. Whoever was piloting the flying tank must've spotted them because the vehicle whipped around and dropped to their altitude.

A tinny voice called to them through a loudspeaker. "You! This is a no fly zone!"

"Then why are you flying in it?" Enzo yelled back.

The turret-mounted cannons on the ABC wheeled around and took aim at them. "Land immediately and submit yourselves for processing and inspection," the pilot ordered.

"Do you always have to be so cocky?" Kevin asked.

He and Enzo broke for it, pushing their zip-boards as fast as they could go. The ABC opened fire, bursts of green energy zipping past them as they dove into the city.

"We can lose them on the ground!" Enzo said.

Enzo took the lead, guiding Kevin in between the skyscrapers of Baudway, through the nooks and crannies that only a native Mainframer could know and navigate by heart. The ABC was in hot pursuit, its mounted cannons firing away wildly. Enzo grabbed Kevin by the arm and yanked him into an alleyway narrow enough that the ABC could not follow.

But the virals kept shooting anyway.

The walls around them exploded as cannon fire chased them up the alley and out the other side. Kevin and Enzo made a hard vertical climb and they emerged near Dot's Diner. The scene they found was enough to make Kevin's blood run cold. Whole portions of the sector were cordoned off by chain link fences topped with razor wire, separating the population of Baudway into enclaves like some vast slave labor camp. Lines of binomes were being herded through security checkpoints guarded by armed viral troops.

"Let's land," Kevin said. "We're only going to draw attention to ourselves."

Enzo and Kevin decompressed their zip-boards and did their best to look inconspicuous while maintaining a respectable distance between themselves and security.

"Only the virals have icons," Enzo said. "Everyone else has a barcode. It must be some kind of ID tag."

"That'll make blending in difficult," Kevin replied. "Let's hope we don't have to be here long. We should find the diner. Maybe we can hide—"

Enzo and Kevin halted in their tracks, both laying eyes on the diner at the same moment. What should have been a symbol of refuge had been transformed, like everything else, into a rank bastardization. The restaurant was still where it was supposed to be, but it had seen better days. The outside was dingy, the windows and marquis coated in a fine layer of black soot, but showing plainly, as if it were the only thing that had been cleaned, was the name on the sign.

"'Nibbles' Diner'?" Kevin exclaimed.

"This is too weird," Enzo said.

The sounds of tolling bells rang throughout the system and a giant vidwindow opened in the sky. Megabyte's villainous countenance gazed down upon the citizens of Mainframe.

"Citizens of Megaframe," he said, his voice elegantly melodious, yet Kevin still felt his neck hairs prickle at the sound of it. "Your ruler would speak with you."

"It can't be," Enzo said. "Bob locked him up in the Supercomputer. He's gone."

In a single, unified voice the inhabitants of Mainframe called out to the image above, "All hail the Prince of Power."

Kevin grabbed Enzo by the arm and guided him toward the diner. "Everyone's looking up," he whispered. "Let's move."

As they crossed the strip, Megabyte continued his address, his accented voice dripping honey and cyanide. "The New Vial Dawn has reached an impasse. Under my benevolent hand, Megaframe has become a symbol of might and order, but forces from the Net seek to impose their own morality upon us. This will not be tolerated, and soon we will be forced to do battle. The stakes are nothing short of our survival."

Enzo and Kevin made it into the diner without being noticed, but the inside was hardly in better shape than the out. All eyes were on them the nano they stepped through the doors. It was hardly surprising. Everyone in the diner looked half-starved and dirty whereas Enzo and Kevin were obviously clean and well-fed. The diner itself was in a sorry state. The seats and stools were torn, the tables dented and shaky, the metal edging was rusting and chipped, and the black-and-white linoleum floors were covered in scratches.

"What kind of nightmare is this?" Kevin muttered. He and Enzo sat across from each other in a booth.

Enzo placed the RAMM on the table between them. "I don't think this is a time machine," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because this has always been Dot's Diner," Enzo said. "It was destroyed during the first Web invasion, and it wasn't rebuilt until the system restart. At no point was it _ever_ called Nibbles' Diner."

"I guess that rules out time travel to the past," Kevin said.

"Could we be in the future?" Enzo asked.

"I don't see how," Kevin replied. "Like you said, Megabyte's locked up in the Supercomputer surrounded by Guardians. What are the odds he'd break out and come back to conquer Mainframe?"

"Pretty slim, I guess," Enzo reasoned, lapsing into silence.

"Didn't he look different to you?" Kevin asked.

"Who?"

"Megabyte," Kevin said, "outside just now. He looks different from what I remember."

Enzo tilted his head to the side as he thought about the image from the video feed. "Come to think of it, yeah. He looked normal. Like the way he was _before_ the Web changed him. If this were the future, he'd look all messed up." Enzo frowned at his own realization. "So if we're not in the future, and we're not in the past, where are we?"

Kevin picked up the RAMM, turning it thoughtfully in his hands. "You're right," he mused. "It's not a time machine. We haven't moved forward or backwards in time. We've moved _sideways_."

Enzo took the RAMM device out of Kevin's hands and placed it back on the table. "Doc, I'm gonna need you to explain that last part. Slowly. And in plain DOS."

"Remember when the Gate Command malfunctioned and sent us back in time?" Kevin asked. "We created an alternate universe where Gigabyte never came to Mainframe. A whole new series of events unfolded from that point forward, creating a reality distinct from ours. The thing is, parallel universes might exist alongside ours, naturally, all on their own."

"You mean this thing," Enzo said, pointing to the RAMM, "took us to an alternate timeline?"

"I think so," Kevin said. "The menu let you pick from a list of Mainframes. Mainframe-Two, Mainframe-Three, Mainframe-Four, and so on."

"There was no Mainframe-One on the menu," Enzo said. He grabbed the RAMM and found the list of possible destinations. "But there is now. And Mainframe-Two is gone."

"That's where we are," Kevin said. "We must've transitioned from our Mainframe, where Megabyte built that secret base, to a different universe where he didn't. That's why we ended up outside."

"So is Mainframe-One supposed to be our version?" asked Enzo.

"Probably," said Kevin. "It makes sense to start numbering from the origin."

Enzo used the toggle to highlight the entry for Mainframe-One. "Should we…I dunno…hold hands or something?"

Kevin held out his hand, and Enzo took it, but before he could press the green button below the LED screen, a different hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Hey _you_ ," a familiar voice growled.

Enzo slowly turned his head, his eyes first settling on the green hand grasping his shoulder then working their way up the arm and finally settling on the face of the sprite standing behind him. He wore a dark leather jumpsuit with faded orange pads on the shoulders, knees, and elbows and a dirty red baseball cap. Like Enzo, he had green skin and violet eyes, but the similarities ended there. Distinguishing the sprite was a vertical scar that ran from his brow, over his right eye, and down his cheek. A gold loop earring dangled from his left ear, and a dusting of facial hair lent his face an air of menace.

Tattooed on his forehead in black ink was a barcode.

The Enzo Matrix of Mainframe-Two scowled at his doppelganger. "Who the Dell are _you_ supposed to be?" he demanded.

* * *

"Hello, m'lady," Capacitor cried out joyously. The Crimson Binome slipped off his stool and doffed his bicorn hat.

"I'm glad to see you Gavin," Dot said.

Capacitor planted a kiss on the back of Dot's hand, and she let him lead her to a booth where they sat down together. Cecil arrived to take their orders.

"Two energy shakes, Cecil," Dot said, "and an order of chips."

"At once, mademoiselle," replied the dedicated server.

"It's been too long, my girl," said Capacitor. "I've been worried about ye."

"I should've made more time, Gavin. I'm sorry. And it's sweet of you to worry, but really, I'm fine."

"So you've patched things up between you and your Guardian, have ye?" Capacitor probed.

"Yes. Well patched," Dot replied. "But don't expect to hear wedding bells just yet. We're taking things nice and easy this time."

She found it pleasing to hear Bob referred to as "her Guardian." It wasn't that she saw Bob as a trophy by any means, but...

 _Well, he is all mine now_ , she thought with an inward smile.

Against all odds, after all the false starts and mistakes, she finally had her Guardian. Suddenly, Dot regretted asking Bob to stay behind at the Principal Office. Things had been so busy lately, especially given her role in negotiating the new Intersystem Trade Agreement, and Dot could only recall a handful of times over the last minute where they had been together. Then again, they had packed a lot of _memory_ into those brief moments.

"Enough about me," Dot said, quickly changing the subject. "I want to hear about you." Almost as an afterthought, she added, "And this new crew member of yours."

The Crimson Binome burst out laughing. "Very subtle, m'lady. Very subtle. I suppose you're referring to the lass who's caught your little brother's eye."

Cecil arrived carrying a tray of chips and their energy shakes.

"Enzo isn't so little anymore," Dot said, taking a sip of her shake.

"Aye," agreed Capacitor. "Time gets away from us all. But before I divulge anything, there's something I must know."

"What's that, Gavin?" asked Dot

"What in the Net do you _feed_ that boy?"

* * *

Enzo slapped the hand away and got out of the booth to face his doppelgänger.

"I asked you a question, bits-for-brains," Enzo-Two said.

"I'm...I'm Enzo Matrix."

"No, _I'm_ Enzo Matrix," Enzo-Two proclaimed.

"Wow, what an uncanny resemblance," Kevin said, rising from the booth. "You know, they say everyone has a twin out there somewhere."

"Zip it, clown," Enzo-Two said. "I'm not talkin' to you."

Enzo balled his fists, felt his case temperature rise. "Whatever you say to him, you say to me, too, _clown_."

Enzo-Two raised his hands in a mock gesture of truce. "No need to get your dander up. I just wanna know what the deal is. Are you a copy, or is that some kind of disguise?"

"Look," Enzo said. "My friend and I are just passing through. We don't want any trouble."

Enzo-Two scoffed at his counterpart's attempt to deflect. "Trouble is what you've already got if security's on your case."

He pointed out the window at something hovering outside. It's metal carapace had the flattened, thumbnail shape of a cockroach, and it was equipped with thin, jointed appendages on its left and right sides, but it's most prominent feature was a large, singular, unblinking eye. The mechanical drone peered at them though the grimy window of the diner, seemingly content to hover and observe.

"Friend of yours?" asked Kevin.

"The Manager is a friend to us all," Enzo-Two said.

"Funny name," Kevin replied. "What's it manage?"

"Disobedience," said Enzo-Two. "See my dilemma? I can't have any lookalikes running around causing trouble without causing _me_ trouble, too. So, spill. I know you're not me, so who are you?"

Enzo couldn't help but feel offended. "I'm one-hundred-percent Enzo Matrix," he said. "All others are cheap imitations. Guess which category you fall in."

" _Enzo_ ," Kevin whispered, "take it down a notch."

"All right, punk," said Enzo-Two. "I tried being nice, but I guess I need to beat the answer outta ya."

Enzo-Two grabbed Enzo by the shirt and threw him against the bar. He tried to sock him with a right hook, but Enzo was ready. He blocked the attack and twisted his Mainframe-Two counterpart's arm into a shoulder lock.

" _Ahhg_ ," screamed Enzo-Two.

"Enzo, this is not conducive to our situation!" Kevin shouted.

"What happened here?" Enzo demanded. "How could you let Megabyte take control of Mainframe? Why aren't you fighting back?"

"If you can't beat 'em," Enzo-Two hissed through ragged breaths, "join 'em."

For the first time, Enzo noticed the green and black icon on his double's baseball cap. "You went viral!?"

The doors banged open and a team of viral binomes stormed the diner, the Manager hovering silently over them. Kevin grabbed the RAMM and then seized Enzo in a bear hug from behind, pulling him away from his Mainframe-Two double.

"No! Let me go!" Enzo protested.

The Manager was moving towards them, it's long, spindly appendages reaching out to grab them. With Enzo still struggling to free himself, Kevin felt for the green selector button on the RAMM and pressed it hard, hoping Mainframe-One was still selected on the menu.

* * *

Dot heard the satisfying sound of air being sucked through a straw as Capacitor finished his energy shake.

"Ahh. I dare say, Dot, you have the best energy shakes in the whole Net," Capacitor said.

"Maybe I should start a franchise," Dot mused. "So, tell me more about this Zoe girl."

"There's not much more to tell," Capacitor said. "She's got a good heart, and she works hard. Comes from a seafaring family, I understand. Grew up on her parents' freighter."

"You certainly seem to like her," Dot said. "That's good enough for me. It's just that Enzo may _look_ like he's grown up, but he's still a little sprite on the inside…I think."

"Best to let the boy sort himself out," Capacitor said, tossing a chip into his mouth. "Childhood always ends, my girl. For some it ends sooner, others later. But it always ends."

A vidwindow appeared with a video feed from Bob. "Sorry to bother you, Dot," he said, "but I was wondering if you've seen Kevin recently."

"Last I checked, he was helping the recovery teams catalogue the tech in Megabyte's base," Dot replied.

"Nobody's seen him for almost a millisecond," Bob said, "and his PID signature isn't showing up on any of our scans."

A second, smaller vidwindow popped open next to Bob's, this one with a video feed from Matrix. "Dot," he said, "we can't find Enzo. Have you seen him?"

"Maybe he's with that girl?" Dot said.

"They were supposed to meet here," Capacitor said. "And m'crew hasn't finished downloading our cargo, yet."

"Kevin and Enzo are both missing?" Bob asked.

"That's not a good sign," Matrix said.

"Stay frosty, boys," Dot said. "I'm on my way back to the War Room." She closed the vidwindows and gave Gavin a weak smile. "Sorry, old friend. Duty calls."

There was a loud pop accompanied by a strong rush of air, and two figures suddenly appeared in the diner. They sank to their knees, breathing hard. One was Kevin Sawyer, the other was Enzo. Dot was on her feet immediately, rushing to her brother's side.

"What in the Net?" Dot exclaimed. "What happened to you two?"

Enzo moved into a sitting position on the floor, pulling his knees to his face and rubbing his eyes with his hand. Kevin remained on his knees, holding himself up by leaning on a barstool.

"Did we make it?" asked Enzo.

Kevin glanced at the RAMM and shook his head. He held it out, the screen facing towards Enzo. "What's it say?"

Enzo uncovered his eyes, turned his head sluggishly, and read the display. "It says 'Mainframe-One' next to Current Location."

Kevin breathed a sigh of relief. "We're back."

Dot looked from one to the other and threw up her hands. "Back from where? Kevin, you've been missing for almost a millisecond. Where did you go?"

Kevin looked at Enzo, who was staring into space. "A nightmare," he said.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4: Murphy's Law**

"Incredible," Welman muttered as he inspected the RAMM device. "This can access parallel worlds?"

"I don't know how it works," Kevin said. "Yet."

Everyone was gathered around the floor map in the War Room: Bob and Dot, Matrix and AndrAIa, Phong and Welman, Kevin and Enzo.

"You mean to tell me that there's more than one version of Mainframe?" Matrix asked.

"It's called the Multiverse," Kevin explained, "and, theoretically, it contains all possible outcomes for all possible events. Think Murphy's Law: anything that can happen, will happen. Except in this case it's more like: if it can happen, it must happen _somewhere_."

"Describe the place you went to," Bob said. "What was it like?"

"It was awful," Kevin said. "Mainframe was a police state, Megabyte ruled the system, and there were these creepy security drones everywhere." He glanced at Enzo and added, "Plus a lot of other disturbing things."

The youth remained uncharacteristically silent, arms crossed, eyes locked in a staring contest with his shoes. He had been stoically reserved since their return from Mainframe-Two, and it wasn't hard to guess why. Enzo was undoubtedly shaken by his encounter with his Mainframe-Two counterpart, and Kevin wondered how the impressionable teen would bounce back from seeing such a dark reflection of himself.

"This drone you're describing," Dot said, "was it flat and round with a big green and red eye?"

Dot's description of the Manager was enough to shock Enzo out of his stupor. "That's it!" he exclaimed. "How'd you know?"

"Because I think I've been there," Dot said.

"What?" asked Bob. "How?"

Dot and Phong exchanged a prolonged, meaningful look. The old sprite adjusted his spectacles and told the story of how he once used a Reality Distortion Engine to send Dot into the future.

"Once," Phong began, "when Dot was suffering from a depressive episode, I used an RDE to project her consciousness into one of many possible futures. My hope was that the experience would motivate her to take action in the present."

"And it worked," Dot said. "Bob and I recovered a file of stolen PIDs, and we liberated one of Megabyte's sectors."

"I remember that," said Bob. "We got stuck in The Funhouse, and I lost track of you for a while."

"The future Phong showed me was one where I lost that Game," Dot explained. "You and I were both nullified, and without us, Megabyte overran the system."

"I don't even want to imagine a world like that," AndrAIa said.

"You don't have to," Matrix said, placing a reassuring arm around his wife.

Enzo squeezed his eyes shut, as if the scene before him were physically painful for him to witness.

"Son?" Welman asked. "What's the matter?"

Enzo's eyes snapped open, and, all at once, everything he had been holding back came flooding out of him. "We have to do something!" he exclaimed.

"Okay, what do you want to do?" Bob asked.

"I wanna go back to that reality and kick Megabyte off his throne," Enzo said.

"Take it easy, kid," Matrix said. "You're all wound up. Take a nano to process what you're saying."

"You should be on my side," Enzo said. "You hate Megabyte, and we've just been to a reality where he won! Why aren't you mad?"

"Megabyte's gone, kid," Matrix said. "What matters most is right here."

Enzo's jaw went slack. "I can't believe I'm hearing this. Don't you get it? He's not gone. Megabyte's still out there."

"Let's say we do what you want, Enzo," said Dot, "where does it stop?"

Enzo stared at his sister blankly. "What do you mean?"

"Kevin says there's an infinite number of universes out there, which means there's an infinite number of Megabytes. Do we stop with Mainframe-Two, or do we take them all on?"

Enzo kept clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to think of a good answer. "I don't know."

Dot placed a calming hand on her brother's shoulder. "You see something wrong, and you want to fix it," she said. "That's a great quality, Enzo, but you can't save everyone."

"Are you saying we shouldn't help people in trouble?" asked Enzo.

"I'm saying if you tried to help everyone that needed it, you'd end up killing yourself," Dot said. "We can't go starting wars with other universes just because we don't like what we see happening there."

With a sigh, Enzo turned and began marching up the stairs to the exit.

"Where are you going, Little Sparky?" AndrAIa asked.

Enzo kept walking. "I need to think." The door closed behind him with an air of finality.

"What's the matter with him, Kevin?" Dot asked. "It's like he's spoiling for a fight."

"When you visited Mainframe-Two," Kevin asked, "did you happen to meet Enzo there?"

Dot's expression softened as a new realization dawned on her. "Oh, no. He met himself in that place?"

Kevin nodded.

"What happened?" Welman asked.

"Imagine looking in the mirror and seeing all these horrible things about yourself that you never knew were there," Kevin said. "I'll go talk to him. I think I know what he needs to hear."

Kevin mounted the steps and chased Enzo down in the adjoining corridor. "Enzo!"

The young sprite came to a halt but didn't turn to face him. "Are you sure you brought us back to the right universe?" Enzo asked.

"Don't take your issues out on them," Kevin said. "It's not their fault."

"Why are they okay with doing nothing?" he asked, spinning around. "Why are _you_ okay with doing nothing?"

"I'm not," Kevin said.

"Well, you did a great job of backing me up in there," Enzo said.

"Don't make this about Megabyte," Kevin said. "That's not why you're mad. You're mad at yourself. This is about your Mainframe-Two counterpart. He's the one you really want to go back and fight."

Enzo began pacing back and forth, his body high on adrenaline. He couldn't stop thinking about his doppelganger. "I can't believe there's a version of me out there somewhere who actually went viral by choice!"

Kevin nodded in understanding. "And so, naturally, you're wondering what that says about you."

"He's me, right?" asked Enzo, "except I _know_ I'd never collaborate with Megabyte. I'd rather erase myself, but he apparently doesn't feel that way. So what's different? What makes me a better person if he and I are the same?"

Kevin remained silent, knowing a rhetorical question when he heard one.

"I can't think of anything," Enzo continued as he paced, "which means we're not different, which means I would go viral if it meant saving my own bitmap." At this, Enzo came to a stop. "And I'm not okay with that."

Kevin folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall of the hallway. "Enzo, do you know what the definition of a good person is?"

The teen sprite shook his head and rolled his eyes. "It's someone who always does the right thing."

"Wrong," Kevin said. "That's the worst definition of a good person."

" _Okay_ ," Enzo said, his patience thinning. "Why, O Great Sage?"

"Because it's physically impossible to get everything right all the time," Kevin said.

"Fine," Enzo said, throwing up his hands. "Fair enough. Tell me what makes a good person."

"A good person is someone who is capable of anything," Kevin explained, "but chooses to only do that which is necessary. Your sister's a great example. She's willing to help anyone in need so long as the costs don't outweigh the benefits, which is completely reasonable."

"So you're playing Devil's Advocate now?" Enzo asked. "I thought you agreed with me."

"I do," Kevin said, "but I also agree with Dot. Neither of you are wrong. I don't think we should try to save every universe out there, but I also believe the only thing needed for evil to win is for us to do nothing about it."

"Great!" exclaimed Enzo. "Why didn't you say that five microseconds ago?"

"Because you need to learn to pick your battles," Kevin said. "Only an idiot thinks he can win every fight."

"And what if the only battles that matter are the ones we can't win?" Enzo asked. "What if the only battles we can win are the ones the bad guys can afford to lose? What do we do then?" Enzo was shaking, whether out of fear or rage, he didn't know. All he knew for sure was that he felt like his skin was the only thing keeping his body from flying apart.

"You fight anyway," Kevin said in a whisper. "But it doesn't have to be you that fights this battle." He took a step toward Enzo and fixed the young sprite with the same paternal stare his father used on him when he was the same age. "Enzo, you're not a good person because you're different from your doppelganger. You're a good person because you're the same, but you try to be better. You're capable of being a villain, but you want to be the hero. That's what makes you good. That's what makes all of us good."

Enzo felt his heart slow. Suddenly, all his strength fled his muscles and he felt heavy, like his body alone couldn't support its own weight. He turned away and rested his forehead against the nearest wall, feeling the cool metal absorb some of the fire which had fueled his fury. He felt a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"You're gonna be okay," Kevin said.

Enzo turned away from the wall, straightened up, and walked with Kevin back to the War Room.

"Should I rally the troops, General Matrix?" Matrix asked as they came down the stairs.

"War's on hold," Enzo said.

"Actually," Kevin said, "war be inevitable."

"What makes you say that?" asked Bob.

Kevin pointed to the RAMM device. "Do you think our Megabyte was the only one in the Multiverse to build a RAMM? Think about it. If Megabyte had this kind of technology at his disposal, why didn't he use it? Why go through the trouble of conquering the Supercomputer when he could've just found a reality where he already had and then replace his doppelganger?"

"That actually sounds like something Megabyte would do," AndrAIa said.

"It does, doesn't it," Bob said. "Which begs the question: why didn't he?"

"I know someone we can ask," Matrix said.

* * *

 _Mainframe-Two_

 _a.k.a. Megaframe_

The tall double-doors parted and Enzo was shepherded inside Megabyte's throne room. It had once been the Principal Office's Great Hall in cycles long past, but those days were over. His footfalls on the obsidian floor echoed off the marble walls until he reached a long burgundy carpet that marked a path straight to "Der Fuhrer" himself.

Megabyte sat legless in his floating throne chair, the blue-tin dictator of Megaframe surrounded on all sides by acolytes, including the self-styled Mad Scientist binome, Herr Doktor.

Enzo knelt on bended knee and removed his baseball cap. "I live to serve the New Viral Dawn," he intoned.

"Rise," Megabyte commanded, and Enzo did so, replacing his hat. "I understand we had some uninvited guests earlier."

"One of them looked like me," Enzo said. "But he wasn't me, my Lord. I can't explain it."

"Your confusion is understandable," Megabyte said, "although I would have _preferred_ their capture. Instead you let the interlopers get the better of you and they escaped. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Enzo felt his jaw clench so tight, his teeth ached, but he swallowed his pride and bowed his head. "I beg forgiveness, Lord Megabyte. A Hunter-Killer who cannot perform his function is a burden to the cause."

The virus's features softened. "I sense sincerity in you, Matrix. I am merciful, but my mercy comes with a price, as with all things. You have a chance to redeem yourself in my eyes and in the eyes of your fellows."

Enzo looked to his Lord and Master. "Command me, my Lord. I am your instrument."

Megabyte snapped his fingers, and Bunnyfoot, Herr Doktor's half-formatted creation, shuffled over to Enzo carrying a silver tray. On the tray was an orange remote control with a large LED screen.

"Take it," Megabyte said.

Enzo picked up the device and studied it with a mix of detached indifference and mild curiosity. "The intruders had something just like this with them," he said.

"It is called the Random Access Memory Machine," Megabyte explained. "It allows one to access an infinitude of other realities."

"I don't understand," Enzo said.

"The intruder," Megabyte said, "the one who looked like you. That _was_ you, a different version of you from a world that exists parallel to ours."

Enzo's eyes grew wide. Suddenly, all the questions that _other_ Enzo had asked made sense. "What is your bidding, my Master?" he asked.

"This RAMM device has been programmed to follow the intruders to their universe," Megabyte explained. "You will go there, find the two who came here, and bring them back to me." Bunnyfoot appeared carrying a chair, which he placed behind Enzo. "Sit down," Megabyte ordered.

Enzo complied, and Herr Doktor marched up beside him with an injector gun in his hand.

"What's this?" Enzo asked.

"Let's call it an insurance policy," Megabyte said. "The RAMM is a gateway to a multiversity of parallel universes. It's not hard to imagine that someone might simply… _take off_ and find somewhere else to live out their days."

"Ziss is a logic bomb programmed to activate after a period of twelve milliseconds," said Herr Doktor, holding up the injector. "Zat is how long you have to complete your mission and return here, at vich point ve vill remove the bomb."

"There are two outcomes to your situation, boy," Megabyte said. "Either you retrieve the intruders and deliver them to me, or you stay long enough to destroy them and their system."

"Insurance," Enzo said. "I get it."

"Good," Megabyte said. "Proceed, Herr Doktor. Our Hunter-Killer must be about his business."

* * *

 _Mainframe-One_

Herr Doktor sat in his cell behind a firewall in the Principal Office's quarantine section. Quarantine consisted of a block of holding cells meant to contain viruses and other infected individuals. Mouse, at Dot's request, had replaced every holding cell's antiquated steel bars with customized unbreakable force fields.

Matrix lowered the firewall and marched inside the cell, holding out the RAMM for Herr Doktor to see.

"Ach! Not zat thing," Herr Doktor said. "Didn't you read zee varning signs?"

"Tell me how it works," Matrix demanded, "and why Megabyte never used it. Or I'll use it to send you to an alternate Mainframe."

Herr Doktor swallowed hard. "Ven Hexadecimal was a prisoner of Lord Megabyte," he began, "I was able to siphon off a portion of her power. Ve used her viral energy to build a battery, vich is vat powers zee RAMM device, but Hexadecimal vas chaos incarnate. Her powers bent zee fabric of cyberspace is vays we could not predict. Zee more we used the device, the harder it became to control vere ve vent. Vith each jump, zee probability of returning to the point of origin on any subsequent jump decreases exponentially!"

"Megabyte would've found a use for this gizmo, even if it wasn't very practical," Matrix said. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Our Megabyte vas not zee only one to build a RAMM," Herr Doktor said. "Ven he discovered other versions of himself, all bent on conquest, he realized the RAMM could not gain him an advantage over any other reality in vhich he was present. Lord Megabyte could not vage var against a whole multitude of equally powerful opponents. He knew zat even if he tried to conquer other realities, his doubles would also try the same. And so, he locked the RAMM away so zat he would never have the temptation to use it."

The thought of a Multiverse of Megabytes marching across dimensions, leaving destruction and pain in their wake was enough to set Matrix's temper boiling. He grabbed Herr Doktor by his head mirror and lifted him up to eye level.

"How do we make sure no other versions of Megabyte show up here?" Matrix asked.

Herr Doktor shrugged. "As long as zee device is not used, zere is no vorry," he said quickly.

"How's that?"

"As long as ve stay in our own realities, no one vill zink anyone else is trying to invade," said Herr Doktor.

Matrix sighed and dropped the mad scientist binome on his bitmap. "Alphanumeric," he muttered.

* * *

Bob and Kevin were waiting in the corridor outside Quarantine.

"Herr Doktor just confirmed Sawyer's theory," Matrix said, tossing him the RAMM. "Apparently, the different Megabytes across the Multiverse aren't willing to go to war with each other, so they keep to their own versions of reality and leave each other alone."

"Kind of like an unspoken non-aggression pact," Kevin said.

"A pact we just violated," Bob added. "If the Megabyte from Mainframe-Two comes here and sees that his double failed…"

"It'll be open season," Matrix finished.

"This is bad," Bob said. "This is _very_ bad."


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5: Transuniversal**

Enzo sat alone in a booth at Dot's, drumming his fingers on the tabletop as he contemplated the very real possibility of war returning to Mainframe, and soon.

 _Thanks to me,_ Enzo thought. _Mainframe's favorite_ _happy-go-lucky_ _screw-up._

It had been an accident, Enzo knew, but it was avoidable, and his role in the latest crisis was all too apparent. Thus, he had drifted into his sister's diner looking for refuge and finding only more of what he already had: self-loathing, self-pity, and self-doubt. He kept trying to think of a time when he'd screwed up worse. That time he'd tried to deliver a mask to Hexadecimal ranked pretty high, he thought. His delivery had turned out to be a bomb, and his selective honesty about the situation had almost cost Bob his life.

Starting a transuniversal war probably topped even that mishap.

"Who died?" someone asked.

Enzo cocked his head, and his frown immediately transformed into a lopsided smile. Zoe sat on a barstool directly across from his booth.

"Hey," he said, straightening up in his seat. "How long have you been there?"

"Just a microsecond," she replied. "You look like you've been to a funeral. So who died?"

"Nobody," Enzo said. "I just…um. I kinda screwed up today."

"Ah ha," Zoe said, hopping off her stool and sliding into the seat opposite Enzo. "Did you kill the car?"

Enzo huffed a laugh and nodded. "Actually, I did."

"Bummer," Zoe said. "I was thinking you could take me for a ride, show me the sights."

"Sorry," Enzo said. "I'm grounded until further notice. And I've had to postpone my friend's birthday celebration."

"Mega bummer," Zoe replied. She leaned forward and whispered, "Doesn't mean we can't still do stuff."

Enzo tried to remain calm, but, internally, he was panicking. He had completely forgotten about his date with Zoe, and he didn't have a backup plan. What was he supposed to do? Maybe he could take her to the energy park? No, that was lame. The energy park no longer held any appeal for him, and he doubted that it would for her, either. Maybe a movie? There was a horror double feature playing at the Electro Cinematek. Except the little money he had he needed to pay for replacement parts.

"I can help you fix your car," Zoe said.

Enzo felt a lead weight form in the pit of his stomach. He tried to stop the words from forming, but he spoke them too quickly, his ego unwilling to cooperate with his better sense. "That's a great idea," he said. "Except it's at my friend's garage. I'd need to ask him if we can use his tools and stuff."

"Sounds good," Zoe replied with a smile.

Enzo felt the lead in his belly melt, the uncomfortable knot replaced with butterflies. He stumbled out of the booth, narrowly avoiding a collision with Cecil and a tray of energy shakes.

"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the dedicated server. "Are you blind?"

"Sorry, Cecil," Enzo said.

The _maître d′_ glanced at Zoe then focused on Enzo again. "Perhaps blindness is not the problem, but _focus_ , eh, monsieur?"

Zoe giggled musically, and Enzo blushed with embarrassment. His mission accomplished, Cecil carried the tray of energy shakes to its destination.

"I just gotta make a call," Enzo said to Zoe. "I'll be right back."

He left Zoe in the booth while he opened a vidwindow and placed a call to Bob, while in the back of his mind he plotted his revenge against Cecil.

* * *

Welman and Kevin were bent over either side of a workbench in Welman's laboratory. Before them, the RAMM device laid in pieces, its components separated neatly among a variety of tools. Bob watched with some trepidation as Kevin finished removing a series of screws and then extracted the RAMM's power cell with a pair of forceps. It was a small, glowing metal lozenge, fat in the middle and narrow at the ends. Kevin placed the cell on a tray which Welman then took and put inside a scanner.

"Alright," he said. "Let's see what makes this thing run." Welman opened a vidwindow and began the scan.

Kevin, meanwhile, used a vidwindow to interface with the RAMM's memory unit and began to convert the data into a language he could easily read.

"I forgot my birthday wishes before," Bob said. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks, Bob," Kevin said.

The Guardian leaned in closer and asked in a muted tone, "So...exactly how old are you?"

Kevin cocked an eyebrow. "I thought everyone knew," he said. "I turned thirty this year."

"I know, I heard," Bob said, "but what does that mean? We don't really measure time the same way. Tom said thirty was a special birthday."

"Did he say why?" Kevin asked.

"He just said it was all...downhill...from there."

Kevin barked an amused laugh. "Ha! Of course he did. Okay, so it's been thirty years since I was born. A year is the time it takes the Earth to complete one orbital revolution around the Sun. There are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, so, if I did the math..."

He reached for a vidpad and a stylus to scribble some quick figures, but Bob had already done the calculations mentally.

"You're 262,980 hours old!" the Guardian exclaimed, his mouth agape.

"Sounds right," Kevin said with a nod.

Bob closed his mouth and regained some of his composure. "You don't look it," he said.

"Thanks. I guess." And then he quickly added, "But, you know, in terms of physical maturity, I'm not much older than you or Dot."

Glitch beeped a notification for an incoming transmission. Bob raised his keytool and the cogwheel expanded into a round screen with a video feed from Enzo.

"Bob, you gotta help me," he said.

"What is it, Enzo?" Bob asked.

"I need to work on your car," Enzo said.

"You...wait, what?"

"It's Zoe, that girl I met today," Enzo said. "I may have told her that the 262 was my car."

"What!" Bob exclaimed.

Kevin shook with silent laughter and joined Welman at the scanner. "Your boy has a knack for talking himself into trouble."

"So I've noticed," Welman said. "Still, all things considered, I'd rather see him in trouble because of a girl than because of something like this." He pointed at the power cell in the scanner.

They pretended to concentrate on their work while continuing to eavesdrop on Bob's conversation with Enzo.

"Please, Bob," Enzo begged. "I really want to impress Zoe, and I've helped you work on your car before. Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."

"I can't tell you what to do unless I see what you're doing," Bob said.

Enzo rubbed the back of his neck, his brow furrowed. Then his face lit up. "You can listen in through my comm watch," Enzo said, "and text me instructions."

Bob sighed. The kid was determined, that was certain. "Okay, I'll help you," he said, "but you have to promise to be careful and follow my instructions to the letter."

Enzo smiled through the screen. "Thanks, Bob! You're the best. I'll let you know when we get to your apartment."

The feed terminated and Glitch's cogwheel returned to normal. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

"Look at it this way," Kevin said, "it's not like Enzo can do any more damage."

"Most likely," Welman added.

The scanner completed its probe and several small vidwindows opened, displaying the results. Kevin pointed at a graph on one window.

"Is that the potential energy curve?" he asked.

"It can't be," Welman said. "It's too unstable to maintain equilibrium. The cell would overload and explode every time the RAMM is used."

"We knew Hexadecimal was powerful," Bob said, "but if these readings are any indication, she only ever tapped a fraction of her full potential."

"But what kind of energy?" Kevin asked. "The more I look at this data, the less convinced I am that the power cell works like a literal battery."

"I agree," Welman said. "Maybe it's more like a valve controlling the flow of energy."

"Energy has to come from somewhere," said Bob, "and look at this." He pulled up a vidwindow and ran a virus scan on the power cell's energy signature. It came back positive.

"Viral energy," Welman said.

"Probably Hex's," said Bob. "So where's it coming from?"

"Perhaps it really is coming from nowhere," Welman said, tapping the bottom of his nullsuit's glass dome as one might tap their chin.

"What are you thinking, Welman?" Kevin asked.

"Hexadecimal was a chaos virus," Welman said. "Her powers allowed her to alter probabilities so that the outcome of any action would always be overwhelmingly in her favor. Perhaps the power cell does something similar by altering the likelihood certain physical events."

They all gazed at the power cell in awe, overcome by the implications if Welman's hypothesis was correct.

"If that's true," Kevin said, "then we've got our hands on something even more dangerous than an atom bomb with a short fuse."

* * *

The transition, when it happened, was abrupt and wholly unpleasant. Megabyte's Hunter-Killer fell to his knees, hands clasping his head as if it were in danger of coming unscrewed. Unable to immediately regain his balance, he went to all fours and puked his guts out until nothing was left. The vertigo gradually subsided, and Enzo Matrix made an effort to stand on feet that quivered like jelly. It didn't take him long to confirm that he was no longer in his version of reality.

The city, _his_ city, was alive in a way he hadn't seen since his distant childhood. The stagnation enforced by the New Viral Dawn was absent here: skies were blue and gloriously bright, people zipped about here and there, unencumbered and unfettered by Managers or security cordons, and most pleasing of all, everything was _clean_. Enzo was used to seeing the buildings coated with a fine layer of soot, the true colors of things permanently muted by the system's industrial activity. Then he turned and saw it, large as life, and every bit as pristine as he remembered it.

Dot's Diner. His sister had owned the restaurant up until she got herself nullified in a Game Cube along with Bob, the system's Guardian. Then after he conquered the system, Megabyte renamed it after his pet null, Nibbles. Enzo suppressed a hot flash of anger and pushed his left sleeve up. On the underside of his forearm, a line of red digits glowed just beneath the skin. It was a subcutaneous timer, counting down the time he had left to complete his mission before the logic bomb detonated.

Enzo steeled himself and walked into the diner. He picked this spot because he himself used to frequently hang around the diner, and he assumed his doppelgänger would be nearby, but Enzo failed to spot him. Then Cecil appeared, riding his brass rail around the diner and coming to a stop in front of Enzo. The snobby dedicated server looked him over from head to toe and frowned with disapproval.

"Short date, I take it, monsieur?" Cecil asked. "I suppose the bad boy _tromperie_ doesn't do the trick like it once did."

 _The idiot thinks I'm his Enzo_ , Enzo thought. He decided to play along. "Yeah, she kicked my bitmap to the curb."

"Hmm. Perhaps next time you should think of something better to do with a girl than fixing Monsieur Bob's car." Cecil turned away and began polishing glasses.

Enzo smiled to himself. "Thanks for the advice, _Seecil_ ," he said as departed the diner.

The waiter spun around and angrily shook a fist in the air. "That's, Cecil!"

* * *

Enzo peered into the engine compartment of the 262, hoping the problem would just reveal itself. He tapped the face of his comm watch, opening a link to Glitch so that Bob could listen in on the conversation, but it suddenly occurred to Enzo that he didn't know where to begin.

"Wow," Zoe said. "You've really souped up the engine."

"Interocitor," Enzo blurted.

Zoe gave him a curious look. "Huh?"

Enzo cleared his throat. "I mean, uh...I think the problem is with the interocitor. It's always the interocitor."

He went to the tool chest and began searching the drawers for a spanner and socket. Enzo's comm watch vibrated silently, and he read the text message off its small, circular screen.

 _Check the oscillation overthruster_ , Bob's message read. _If it's out of alignment, you'll need a microwrench to adjust the_ _valve_ _s._

"On second thought," Enzo said, "it might be the oscillation overthruster." He began searching for a microwrench.

"What makes you think that?" Zoe asked.

"Just a hunch," Enzo replied. He handed Zoe a mechanic's lamp. "Hold this for me?"

She took the lamp, holding it over the engine, and Enzo set to work. Soon, Bob's garage filled with the sounds of labored breathing and metal-on-metal. The overthruster was mounted next to the engine and used its exhaust to pressure-force a plasma stream into the intermix chamber, giving the engine a power boost. If the overthruster was feeding the engine too much or too little plasma, it could cause the engine to stall. Using a screwdriver, Enzo removed a cover from the overthruster, revealing a set of screws that adjusted the flow valves.

Enzo reviecved another message. _Have her give the engine a crank while you adjust the valves._

"Give her a crank, would'ja," Enzo requested.

Zoe hung the lamp on the hood and leaned over the driver's side door to press the ignition. The engine kept whirring pathetically, and Enzo kept adjusting the screws with the microwrench until the engine finally backfired and turned over.

"Wow, that worked," Enzo said.

He listened closely to the sound of the engine. It always ran like a clunker, but there was a subtle variation in its usual rumble that grated unpleasantly against Enzo's ears.

"Sounds like you need to adjust the interocitor after all," Zoe shouted over the sound of the engine.

 _No, it's the turbo lock,_ read Bob's next message.

"I think you're right," Enzo said, ignoring the text. "I'll need a spanner, an extender, and a socket to remove the cathode tubes."

 _Don't touch the tubes,_ Bob wrote. _It's not the tubes._

"Cathode tubes?" Zoe asked after she cut the engine. "The 262 is a classic, not a relic. Why not use electron pumps instead?"

"Thank you!" Enzo said. "I've been saying that for hours, but Bob's all, 'You can't go wrong with solid state.'"

 _That's because you can't,_ read Bob's next text message.

"Wanna replace them?" asked Zoe.

 _Don't even think about it,_ Bob warned.

"I don't have the cash," Enzo said with a sigh. " _Yet._ I might be able to buy some replacement tubes at the parts store. At least that'll get it running."

"Shiny," Zoe said turning off the lamp. "You're pretty good at this."

"Thanks," Enzo replied. "I tend to fly by the seat of my pants, but I always get the job done."

 _Are you talking about me or you?_ Bob asked.

Enzo double-tapped the face on his watch and terminated the link. "You're pretty savvy yourself," he said, hitting the button to open the garage door

The barrier slowly slid upward on squeaky rollers.

"So are you sure you want to hang around and—"

Enzo turned and suddenly Zoe was very close, hands clasped behind her back, looking up at him with half-closed eyes. "I want to hang around," she said.

Enzo wasn't an idiot. He could tell the girl expected to be kissed, but his lack of experience almost made him hesitate.

Almost.

He'd seen Matrix kiss AndrAIa and Bob kiss Dot. It wasn't transfinite calculus, so he summoned what courage he had and leaned down to plant a single, chaste kiss on Zoe's lips.

A rough hand landed on his shoulder and forced him to turn around. Before he realized what was happening, Enzo felt a fist connect with his chin, rattling his teeth and sending him stumbling backwards, bumping against the car.

His eyes regained their focus and quickly locked on to his attacker. Standing inside the garage was his twisted Mainframe-Two doppelgänger.

"Hey, Enzo," said Enzo-Two. "You and I have unfinished business."

* * *

"Okay, Dad," Dot said. "What have you and Kevin found out?"

Welman and Kevin had finished their first batch of tests and had gathered the team together in Dot's office to share the results. AndrAIa was seated at the large, round table that served as Dot's desk, hands resting on her pregnant belly while Matrix stood behind her, an ever-watchful sentinel. Phong stood next to AndrAIa while Bob sat next to Dot. Welman and Kevin remained standing, seemingly too excited to sit still.

The professor opened a large vidwindow displaying a cross-sectional diagram of the RAMM's power cell. "Kevin and I have developed a working theory of how the RAMM device can do what it does, and, by extension, we've gained some insight into Hexadecimal's powers."

"Get ready to have your minds blown," Kevin said.

"Coming from you, that's never a metaphor," Matrix quipped.

"We think the RAMM's power cell acts like a kind of valve or pump that controls the direction of entropy within a small field of influence," Welman said.

"And what is entropy exactly?" asked Dot.

"There are several definitions," Kevin said, "but generally speaking it's an expression of the disorder, or _randomness_ , of a system."

"Sounds like Hex, alright," Matrix said.

"Entropy describes the tendency of matter and energy to go from states of order to states of chaos," Welman explained. "Normally, entropy either remains constant or it increases, but Hexadecimal was able to influence statistical entropy in such a way that it made improbable things more likely to happen."

"In other words," Kevin said, "she could make sure the outcome of any action would always be in her favor by adjusting the degree of _chaos_ in her environment, but _how_ she controlled chaos and entropy is what's really impressive."

"Entropy can increase or decrease inside the power cell, and the RAMM amplifies this effect," Welman said. "The result is very specific: a transition from one universe to another. It's one of the most unlikely things to happen spontaneously but not strictly forbidden by the laws of physics."

"While I find all this fascinating," Dot said, "I was hoping for something tactically relevant. How are we going to stop other realities from making incursions into our own?"

"The RAMM device may be the key," Welman said. "It works by altering probabilities. If we can figure out how to pick and choose which outcomes we want to affect, it may be possible for us to disable every RAMM device in the Multiverse."

"How could you?" asked AndrAIa. "The Multiverse is supposedly infinite."

"The number of universes in the Multiverse may be _uncountably_ infinite," Kevin said, "but the number of universes with RAMM devices are _countably_ infinite. And if we're right about how Hexadecimal's powers work, it means every RAMM device in existence shares the same power source. All we have to do is cancel it out."

"How would we do that?" Dot asked.

Kevin opened a smaller vidwindow with an animation of two waves meeting in a two-dimensional plane. "It would be something similar to destructive interference. We would have to calculate the power cell's wave function and then construct a wave pattern that will result in total cancellation when the two waveforms meet. But there's a hitch."

"There usually is," Bob said.

"The calculations are very, very difficult," Welman said. "Even if we had a hundred mathematicians working for us, we wouldn't find the right answer within our lifetime."

"So there's nothing we can do," Matrix said, "except batten down the hatches and wait for an invasion?"

"We should focus on what we are currently capable of doing," Phong said. "Upgrading the sensors to scan for transuniversal incursions should be our top priority."

"Good idea, Phong," Dot said. "In the meantime, Matrix can get our defense forces ready for combat."

"I'll notify the unit commanders to prepare for drills," Matrix said.

"What should we expect first?" asked AndrAIa. "A whole army or a small reconnaissance force?"

"Maybe neither," Bob said. "Assuming the Megabyte from Mainframe-Two only built one RAMM device, like ours did, the most practical approach would be to send a single scout."

"Then we need to be on the lookout," Dot said. "If a scout does show up, we _cannot_ let him return to Mainframe-Two."


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6 – His Own Worst Enemy**

Somewhere outside space and time, an entity stood on the edge of a bottomless chasm. So vast was the abyss in all of its dimensions that it was physically impossible for the entity to gauge its boundaries or its volume, yet, paradoxically, circumnavigating the pit only took a matter of nanoseconds. As he did so, the shape of things inside the chasm changed, as if he were looking through a kaleidoscope. Continuum probabilities shifted, timelines branched off, intersected, and then branched again. Worlds were born, worlds died, some thrived, and others stagnated. Of course, the chasm wasn't really a chasm, but the Universe, and its edge wasn't an edge so much as the event horizon. The twilight world that the watchful entity inhabited was something akin to the interstellar void between galaxies, a dimensionless region that was somehow both endless and finite, a sort of buffer between the universe from which he originated and everything else.

 _Everything else_ , he thought, the words sounding ominous within his own head. _What else is there?_ He dared not look away from the abyss to actually gaze upon the singular, monolithic structure that loomed over Creation.

His companion appeared suddenly from beyond the edge of the Universe.

"I'm _baaaack_ ," Hexadecimal announced. "Did you miss me?"

"Were you gone?" Pythias asked.

Hexadecimal made a pouty face. "Oh, you wound me so, Pythias," she replied. "I'd hoped your mood would've improved by now."

"I'm afraid we have little reason for levity," Pythias reported. "They found the RAMM device."

Hexadecimal nodded in understanding, her temperament becoming more somber. "I see," she said with a sigh. "Well, we knew it was only a matter of time."

"It's too soon," Pythias said. "Events are occurring too fast. They were supposed to have more time to prepare. At this rate, Sawyer will make contact much sooner than we anticipated. The whole plan could go off the rails at any moment."

"Naturally," Hexadecimal said. "We're dealing with chaos."

Pythias shook his head, frustrated with his companion's cavalier attitude. "We need to intervene before things get too out of hand."

"You know we can't do that," Hexadecimal said. "Any interference on our part could decrease the number of favorable outcomes."

"The number of favorable outcomes is already dropping," Pythias said.

"Then we must wait until the moment of crisis," Hexadecimal said. "If the fluttering wings of a butterfly can cause a hurricane then tossing a rock into the ocean can stop a tsunami. But only if it's done _right._ "

Pythias gazed into the abyss that was the Universe. "I hope you know what you're doing, Hex."

"There are higher forces at work," Hexadecimal replied.

Pythias followed her gaze, unwillingly, away from the Universe and out into the darkness _beyond_. Off in the distance (if there really was such a thing) stood a tall, three-sided tower. The structure glowed like a lighthouse perched on a distant shore, thrusting up and out of the inky nothingness like an unsheathed blade. In days long past, Pythias and Hex had tried to reach the tower and always failed. No matter how long they journeyed, no matter where they were, within or outside of the Universe, the distance between them and the tower always remained the same.

"Do you honestly believe that Sawyer can reach it?" asked Pythias.

The former chaos virus didn't reply. Instead, she refocused her attention on Enzo as he fought his doppelganger, all the while longing to rush to the boy's aid. Summoning all her willpower, Hex forced herself to watch instead.

* * *

Enzo quickly got into a fighting stance, arms up, fists balled and ready to strike. "What are you doing here?" he asked his double.

"You're coming back with me," Enzo-Two said. "You _and_ your friend, the one who visited my reality with you."

"Counter-proposal," Enzo said. "I kick your ascii and send you back to Megabreath crying like a little source code."

Enraged, Enzo-Two lashed out at his Mainframe-One counterpart with a wild haymaker. Enzo dodged to the right, allowing Enzo-Two to back him up against the wall of the garage. When his evil twin moved to strike his face with a left jab, Enzo deftly moved his head to the left, and his opponent's fist met solid metal with a satisfying metallic crunch. Enzo-Two's cry of pain was cut off as his double attacked with a one-two punch, a classic left lead followed by a right cross that made him see stars then spots. On the defensive now, Enzo-Two backed away, blocking Enzo-One's next two strikes. He let his Mainframe-One opponent move in for the _coup de grâce_ , and when he struck out with a right jab, he seized Enzo-One's arm and used his momentum to throw the youth to the ground.

Enzo grimaced in pain as his double twisted his arm.

"Not so cocky now, are you, bithead?" Enzo-Two snarled as he applied more pressure.

" _Ahhhhhh!_ " Enzo screamed.

"Hey!"

Enzo-Two looked up just as a large crescent wrench made contact with the bridge of his nose. He released his hold on Enzo-One and, before he could raise his hands to ward off the next attack, was struck a second time. He felt cartilage break and bone snap as blood, blue-glowing and viscous, oozed out of his nostrils and down his face. Enzo-Two fell into a sitting position on the floor, dazed and unable to focus on anything other than the blinding pain. He had been so focused on besting his Mainframe-One counterpart that he'd totally neglected the spammed girl!

Zoe dropped the crescent wrench and helped Enzo off the floor. The young sprite, ever chivalrous, put an arm around her and quickly ushered her into the car.

"Let's get outta here," he said, slamming the hood down.

Enzo fired up the 262 and floored the gas, roaring out of Bob's garage like a rocket. Neither he nor Zoe looked back to see the Hunter-Killer jump up and catch a ride on the underside of the car.

* * *

Once again, Kevin found himself working at a console in the War Room, this time with Phong on one side and Welman on the other. Between the three of them, they had upgraded the sensors in record time.

"How's it going, guys?" Bob asked from the War Room's balcony level.

"The Principal Office now has the ability to detect crossovers from other universes," Phong announced.

"Good job," Dot said. "Now all we need is a way to prevent crossovers from happening at all."

"Your dad's idea is still our best bet," Kevin said. "We just need a faster way to make the necessary calculations."

"What about the Supercomputer?" Bob asked.

"I've already thought of that," Kevin said. "The Supercomputer only has a fraction of the power necessary. Any algorithm we come up with to calculate the proper waveform would be quantum-based, which means we'd need a quantum computer to…" Kevin's voice trailed off as his face went blank.

"I've seen that look before," Bob said. "You just thought of something."

"The Alpha-9," Kevin said. "I mean, it's a single purpose machine, but we might be able to…" He leapt out of his seat and grabbed Welman by the shoulder. "The quantum computer I use to teleport myself into and out of the cyberverse. Theoretically, it could be reprogrammed to run the algorithm."

"We still have to write it," Welman said.

"But we've got a chance now," Kevin said. "It's still a long shot, but it's not impossible!"

A video transmission from Enzo abruptly appeared on the War Room's main vidwindow.

"Dot!" Enzo exclaimed. "He's here!"

"Who's here?" Dot asked. "And what are you doing driving Bob's car?"

"He found us in Bob's garage," Enzo said. "He attacked me. I had to get us outta there!" The young sprite was clearly frightened, verging on manic.

"Who attacked you?" Dot asked.

" _Me!_ " Enzo cried. "I mean the other me. The one from Mainframe-Two. He's here to take Kevin and me back to his reality."

Bob looked to Phong. "Sensors?"

"He must have crossed over before we completed the upgrades," Phong said. "We have no way to track him."

"We ditched him in Bob's garage," Enzo said. "Zoe nailed him with a crescent wrench."

"I'll send Matrix over there to check it out," Bob said.

Dot nodded in agreement and then gave her little brother instructions. "Enzo, I want you to come to the Principal Office. We can protect you here."

"I'll be there in a nano," Enzo said. Some of the tension had left his features, and he appeared more relaxed.

"And try not to kill my car again, please?" Bob added.

Enzo grinned weakly. "No promises."

The video feed ended, and Dot gave Kevin one of her patented command-dot-com expressions: stern face, fists balled on her hips, no-nonsense tone. "Anything you need, you can have, but I need a defensive system in place last second."

"I understand," Kevin said. "You'd better call Cecil and tell him we're gonna need energy shakes. _Lots_ of energy shakes."

* * *

Enzo closed the vidwindow and settled into the driver's seat, turning the car towards the Principal Office. Below them, Kit's Sector retreated as the large, spherical building at the center of Mainframe grew larger in the distance.

"Enzo, who was that back there?" Zoe asked. "He looked almost exactly like you."

"It's…" Enzo struggled to find the right words. "It's complicated."

"Yeah, no duh," Zoe said. "Look, you two obviously know each other, and you obviously _hate_ each other with a passion. Is he like your evil copy or something?"

"Actually, that's exactly what he is," Enzo said.

"Random!" Zoe said, her face practically glowing with excitement. "Is he trying to, like, vendetta kill you because he's all 'There can be only one', or is he like a malfunctioning assassin bot from the far future who's trying to replace you…or maybe—"

"Zoe!" interrupted Enzo.

"Uh-huh?"

Enzo felt a strange, surrealistic sense of deja-vu but quickly brushed it aside. Apparently, the truth wasn't going to require any sugar-coating. "He's an evil version of me from an alternate reality," he explained. "He wants to take me and my friend back to his world to interrogate us, and then he'll probably lead an army to invade Mainframe."

"Dude! Invaders from the fifth-dimension! That's awesome! Does stuff like this happen a lot around here?"

Enzo's thoughts turned to Kevin and he felt himself nodding in the affirmative. "Actually…yeah, it kinda does."

"So what's the plan?" Zoe asked. "How are you gonna deal with your evil double?"

"If I know my sister," Enzo said as he focused on the Principal Office, "she's already one step ahead."

* * *

"He's not here, sis," Matrix said over the vidwindow. "There was definitely a struggle, though." He held up a wrench flecked with blood. "He must've recovered and split just before we got here."

"Have Frisket track him down," Dot said. "His nose is better than any sensor array."

"If Enzo-Two is here to capture Kevin and Enzo," Bob said, "it only makes sense for him to follow his targets."

Dot nodded. "Agreed." She then issued orders to Hack and Slash, who stood on the other side of the room. "Hack, Slash: intercept Enzo and escort him the rest of the way to the Principal Office. If Enzo-Two shows up, take him down."

"Uh, Dot…" began Slash, "how are we supposed to tell the difference between Enzo's one and two?"

"Yeah," added Hack. "You told us all about this alternate universe stuff, but if Enzo's Enzo here and there, what's the difference?"

"He'll probably be the one trying to dismantle you," Bob replied.

Slash shook his head and groaned. "Hack, ole' buddy, I get the feelin' it's gonna be one o' those days."

The two droids mounted the stairs and exited the War Room.

"Would Enzo-Two really risk coming to the Principal Office?" asked Dot. "We'd have him surrounded."

"He must have a getaway plan," Bob said. "Otherwise, how would he get both Kevin _and_ Enzo back to Mainframe-Two?"

"I don't know," Dot said. "Maybe he wanted to take Enzo back to Mainframe-Two and get Kevin to follow. That way, Megabyte could get his hands on another RAMM device."

"Maybe we should consider destroying the one we have," Bob suggested.

"It's a little late for that," Dot said. "The way things are going, we may need it. Let's just hope it doesn't get any worse."

* * *

The Hunter-Killer clung to the convertible like a spider, keeping his body flat against the underside to minimize air drag. He couldn't keep that up forever, though. His muscles were screaming for mercy, and they were only about half way to the Principal Office. He would have to move up before his muscles gave out. Slowly, carefully, he sought out handholds and pulled himself towards the rear of the car. Enzo allowed his body to swing freely so that he was hanging from the car like on a set of monkey bars. The air both propelled him forward and clawed at him, trying, it seemed, to pull him off the car. He reached the rear bumper and grasped it. Taking a few steadying breaths, he began to swing. It was hard to work up enough momentum while the air was pushing against him on the backswing, but he managed to backflip onto the trunk of the convertible, landing on the balls of his feet in a crouch.

He spun around to face his Mainframe-One duplicate and the girl, who had no doubt heard him land on the trunk. Enzo-Two smiled crookedly as he saw a look of panic cloud his double's face.

"There's no escaping me, Enzo!" he shouted. "I'm coming for—"

Enzo-Two was violently flung forward as his double slammed on the brakes, the car almost coming to a dead stop in midair, and he ended up taking a nosedive into the backseat. He felt the car lurch forward as he tried to push himself upright, but when he dislodged himself from the space between the front and backseats, his counterpart was already waiting for him. The girl, Zoe, had taken the wheel, and Enzo-One landed a solid uppercut to Enzo-Two's chin, sending him into a seated position in the backseat. The two sprites grappled while Zoe kept the car on course toward the Principal Office. It soon became clear that both Enzos were evenly matched physically, but Enzo-Two was far more ferocious. He pushed his boot into Enzo's chest, trying to shove his doppelganger over the side of the car. Enzo-One braced himself, arms outstretched, hands grasping for leverage.

Zoe glanced over her shoulder, saw Enzo about to topple over. She turned the car hard over, sending Enzo-Two sliding to the other side of the car, carrying Enzo with him. Enzo-One drove his right knee into Enzo-Two's solar plexus, and was pleased with the sound of agony it elicited from his opponent, but it had opened a window for Enzo-Two to counterstrike. He drove his fist into Enzo-One's jaw, and the youth fell back onto the seat, stupefied. Just as Enzo-Two wrapped his hands around his doppelganger's throat, a metal fist clotheslined him, and everything went dark.

Enzo pushed himself upright and saw Hack and Slash flying alongside Bob's car.

Slash: "Hiya…"

Hack: "…Enzo!"

"Hack! Slash! Am I glad to see you!"

"Looks like it's a good thing Dot sent us when she did," Slash said.

"Yeah," Hack said, "that other Enzo looked like he was about to kill you."

Enzo shoved his Mainframe-Two duplicate aside and confirmed that he was out cold. "He won't get another chance," he muttered.

Enzo leaned over the seat and pointed to a landing bay within the rapidly-approaching Principal Office. "They've opened up a bay for us," Enzo said to Zoe. "Just head inside."

"Okay," Zoe replied, angling the nose of the car. "Are you alright?"

Enzo glanced at his unconscious double and nodded. "I am now."

* * *

After handing his Mainframe-Two counterpart over to a team of CPU binomes, Enzo went to the infirmary and got an icepack for his face. He sat on the bed, holding the pack against the place on his jaw where Enzo-Two had K.O.'d him.

Zoe stood before him and ran a feather-light caress over a freshly forming bruise on his chin. "You really know how to show a girl a good time," she said.

"I'm usually more low-key than this," said Enzo.

"Maybe next time we should start small, like fighting a Game Cube," Zoe suggested.

Enzo tried to smile, but he winced instead.

"Does it hurt bad?" Zoe asked.

"I'll be fine," Enzo replied.

"Are you sure?" Zoe asked, moving closer. "I could…kiss it and make it better."

"That sounds better than an ice pack," Enzo said.

They leaned in closer, both smiling expectantly, and just as their lips were about to touch…

"Enzo!" Dot exclaimed.

Both Enzo and Zoe turned to see Dot enter the infirmary followed by AndrAIa and Phong.

Enzo rolled his eyes in frustration. _At this rate, I'll never kiss her,_ he thought. "Perfect timing," he whispered.

"Are you okay?" Dot asked.

"I'm fine, sis, just a little bruised."

" _A little?_ You look like you picked a fight with Nullzilla."

"I'm not that bad…" He looked to Zoe for confirmation. "Am I?"

"What's a Nullzilla?" she asked with a shrug.

Enzo saw AndrAIa smile, her eyes sparkling with humor. She knew. The Game Sprite knew he was within a micron of getting a kiss and she was giggling inside.

"Phong, can you give him something to speed up healing?" Dot asked.

"Just a moment, my child," Phong replied, and he began searching the cabinets.

"You did a good job, little brother," Dot said. "I'm so proud of you."

"We all are," AndrAIa said. Then she turned her attention to Zoe. "And you must be Zoe."

"Yep. That's me!"

"Enzo was lucky to have a friend watching his back," AndrAIa said. "Thanks for helping get our favorite guy back safe."

"No problem," Zoe said. "After all, I wasn't done with him yet."

Enzo felt his cheeks grow warm and then a sharp pain in his arm. "Ow!"

Phong removed the injector gun and placed it back inside his personal drawer. "You should be feeling better any nano, my son."

"Thanks, Phong," Enzo said.

A vidwindow opened with a video feed from Bob. "Dot, you'd better come down to Quarantine. The other Enzo is awake."

"I'll be right there," Dot said. "Has he said anything?"

"Yeah. He says he's hidden a logic bomb somewhere in Mainframe, and unless we send him back to Mainframe-Two with Kevin and Enzo, he's going to detonate it."


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7 – In a Mirror, Darkly**

Kevin stepped back from the vidwindow and rubbed his eyes. The equations were running together in his blurred vision. The vidwindow was the size of a large dry-erase board, and every inch of its surface was covered with step-by-step formulae that contained more Greek symbols than numbers. On the other side of the room, Welman worked diligently to turn Kevin's physics into an algorithm. They had a nice system going: Kevin would write out the math, pass it to Welman, who would then codify the formulas, and Kevin would start on the next set of calculations. Wash, rinse, repeat.

They had hit a snag, however. Kevin was having trouble figuring out the last bit of math required to complete the recursive step of the algorithm. He had been puzzling over it for the last hour, trying different expressions, and getting nowhere.

Welman patted him on the shoulder. "We've managed to get a lot done," he said. "Let's take a break."

Kevin tossed the stylus on the workbench and threw himself into a chair. He grabbed an energy shake off the workbench and took a sip. The pure energy was like an adrenaline shot, and he felt instantly better.

"Tough nut," he said.

"What?"

"I just meant that this is a tough nut to crack," Kevin clarified.

"Is that an idiom of some kind?" Welman asked.

Kevin nodded. "It means this task is going to be harder than I thought."

"Ah!" Welman exclaimed. "I see, yes…a tough nut to crack." He chuckled. "That's quite clever."

Kevin set the energy shake aside and picked up the RAMM device that the CPUs had confiscated from Enzo-Two. It was virtually identical in every way to their own RAMM.

"Unbelievable," Kevin said. "Infinite universes and the first one we visit wants to blow us to kingdom come."

"I still can't believe that Enzo, _any_ Enzo, is capable of committing an atrocity like that," Welman said.

"He might be bluffing," Kevin said. "Dot seems to think so."

"Perhaps," Welman said. "But I don't think so." Professor Matrix sat down, leaning forward, arms on his knees. "This whole situation has served to remind me that I've been out of my children's lives for a very long time. Things have gotten better, you understand. It's not like I'm a complete stranger to my family." Welman fell silent for a few contemplative moments.

"But…" prodded Kevin.

"But there's a distance between us that I can't close," Welman said. "I know where they fit in my life, but it's like I don't quite fit anywhere in theirs. I suppose that's only natural, though. Children grow up and learn to live without their parents. At first, I thought I could pick up where I left off, especially with Enzo. Then Pythias upgraded him, and now he's well on his way to becoming a man. So much time just…lost."

"Don't beat yourself up, Welman," Kevin said. "What matters is that you're back now. Besides, your first grandchild is on the way, and I guarantee there's going to be a Welman-shaped place in his life just for you."

The professor couldn't smile in the literal sense as his null-form didn't have a mouth, but his synthesized voice contained a tone of hopeful anticipation that was just as radiant as an ear-to-ear grin. "Grandchildren. Ha! That's something." He oriented himself so that he was facing Kevin. If Welman had had eyes, they would've been looking into Kevin's. "Thank you, my friend."

"It's what friends are for."

The doors to the science lab parted and Phong entered. "Gentlemen, how is your work proceeding?"

"The algorithm is almost complete," Welman said. "All that's left is a recursive step used in calculating the waveform. I suggested we take a break for a while and come back with fresh eyes."

"A sensible suggestion," Phong said.

"How's our guest?" Kevin asked.

"He is most intransigent," Phong replied. "We have promised him asylum in exchange for the location of the logic bomb, but he refuses to cooperate."

"Maybe I should try talking to him," Welman said, standing up.

"Do you think you can reach him?" Kevin asked.

"I'm his father," he replied.

"Welman," Phong said, "please keep in mind that, although he may be Enzo, he is not _our_ Enzo."

"He was once," Welman said, "a long time ago. Maybe there's some piece of my boy in there somewhere."

"I hope you are right, old friend," Phong said.

Welman left the science lab, the doors hissing shut behind him.

"If Enzo-Two cannot be reasoned with, we may be forced to take drastic measures," Phong added.

Kevin didn't bother asking what "drastic measures" Dot was prepared to take. Perhaps she was above waterboarding, but what about letting Matrix dangle Enzo-Two off the roof of a Baudway skyscraper, Batman-style?

"How goes the search?" Kevin asked.

"The sensors have not detected the bomb," Phong said. "Without knowing where he arrived and when, we cannot even make an estimation of where he might have placed it."

"He can't possibly be this loyal to Megabyte," said Kevin. "Living under a totalitarian regime has obviously made him bitter and angry, but why wouldn't he just take the RAMM and escape into the Multiverse? It's not like he'd have to worry about being hunted down."

"It is not as simple as that," Phong said. "Viral infection induces numerous personality changes in a host. In some ways, an infected individual is wholly different from the person they were before being infected."

"Are you saying his loyalty to Megabyte isn't genuine?"

"It ultimately comes down to a battle of wills," Phong explained. "If a person's resolve is strong and the infection is weak enough, one may overcome its influence, but this is seldom the case. Those who surrender to the infection voluntarily do not have to have their loyalty influenced. They are already willing to serve."

"Enzo-Two said he went viral of his own free will," said Kevin, "but I wonder if he had any real choice other than deletion."

"That was… _is_ Megabyte's way," Phong said. "He enjoys breaking people."

"Could we disinfect Enzo-Two?" asked Kevin. "Remove the viral infection? That might make him more receptive to us."

"Disinfection is possible," said Phong, "but only if certain conditions are met, like during a system restart. Under normal circumstances, an infected individual must either be quarantined permanently or deleted."

"What about Daemon?" Kevin asked. "She infected the whole Net."

"Hexadecimal carried a patch that, once distributed, rendered Daemon's infection inert," Phong said. "Every living being in the Net still carries some of Daemon's viral code, but we are all immune."

"Immunity," Kevin said. "Maybe that's the key."

"The key to what?" Phong asked.

Kevin leaped out of his seat, suddenly energized. "You've taken medical scans of my body several times. Do you still have them?"

"Of course," Phong said. "But what are you—"

"I'll need access to those files," Kevin said as he moved around the room gathering up vidpads. "Do me a favor and call Bob. I want both of you to meet me in the infirmary. He's been searching for a way to cure virals. I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner."

"Think of what exactly?" Phong asked.

"The human immune response," Kevin replied, pausing halfway out the door. "If we can't purge the infection, we'll suppress it."

The old sprite adjusted his spectacles. "An ingenious idea," he said.

Kevin shrugged. "Only if it works."

He disappeared into the hallway, and the doors hissed shut behind him. Phong waited patiently for him to return, several nanoseconds passing in silence.

The doors opened and Kevin stuck his head back inside the science lab, his face sheepish. "Which way is the infirmary, again?" he asked.

Phong smiled slightly. "Perhaps we should walk together, my son."

* * *

Professor Matrix stood outside the entrance to the Quarantine area, taking a few nanoseconds to gather his thoughts and steel himself for the coming encounter. When he finally felt ready, he tapped the door controls, and the heavy security door slid aside, revealing the cell block within. Two cells were occupied, but the one he wanted to visit was at the very end of the block on the right with two CPU binomes posted on either side. Welman considered dismissing them. What he had to say was private, but he hesitated upon laying eyes on Enzo-Two.

The young man was sitting on the floor, leaning against the furthest wall. He wore a dirty black leather jumpsuit that was not altogether dissimilar from Bob's Guardian uniform, and there was a long, vertical scar over his right eye. Enzo-Two glared at Welman through the translucent firewall blocking the entrance of his cell.

"What the Dell are you supposed to be?" the boy asked.

Suddenly self-conscious, Welman fumbled for an explanation. "Well I'm…I'm…" He sighed. "It's me, Enzo. Your dad."

Enzo-Two cocked his head to the side, his face neutral. Then he snorted and laughed. "You people must be desperate to try a mind game like this."

"It's true, son. I'm Welman Matrix, your father."

"My father got nullified when the Twin City exploded," Enzo-Two replied. "He's gone. I don't know you."

"But you do," Welman said. "I was nullified." He looked down at his robotic body. "I guess I still am, but I'm back now. Enzo, please, it doesn't have to be this way. We're family, not enemies."

"My family's dead," Enzo-Two replied, standing up. "But if you are this reality's Welman Matrix, and if you are, somehow, alive then I've got something to say to you. It should be said to _my_ father, but you'll have to do." Enzo-Two stood just behind the firewall, his eyes boring holes into the null contained within the exosuit. "It's all your fault."

The young sprite's words hit Welman with the force of a runaway train. Although he had no lungs with which to breathe, he felt breathless. Although he had no heart, his chest seized.

"You brought Megabyte to Mainframe in the first place," Enzo-Two said, "so it's thanks to you that I got to grow up in a data dump like Megaframe. Good job. Really, excellent work."

"I never…I mean I didn't mean to—"

"It's your fault I'm here, old man," Enzo-Two said, "so don't ever speak to me as your son again." He returned to his position on the floor, leaning against the back wall of his cell.

Dejected, Welman turned and left Quarantine. Not paying attention, he ran into Matrix, who was on his was in.

"Dad?" Matrix asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I could…I thought I could reason with him," Welman said. He looked up at his son, his _oldest_ son, saw the missing right eye and immediately thought about Enzo-Two's scar. He shuddered.

"What did he say to you?" Matrix asked. There was an unmistakable undercurrent of hostility in his voice.

"Nothing that wasn't true," Welman said. He tried to move past, but Matrix stopped him.

"Dad, whatever he said, he said it to hurt you," Matrix said.

"Son…do you…" Welman turned to face his son man-to-man. "Do you hold me responsible for everything that's happened to Mainframe? To you?"

"What? No, of course not," Matrix said, seemingly taken aback by the question. "Dad, I could never think that about you."

"It's just that I was gone for so long," Welman said, "and I know things would've been different had I…made different choices."

Matrix took his father by the shoulders and held him while he spoke, as if Welman might evaporate like a ghost if he let go. "Yeah, I lost a lot when you went away," Matrix said, "and I lost more after, but none of that is your fault. Everything I lost I've gotten back _and more_ besides, things I thought were gone for good, like you, like Bob and Dot. Even Enzo. I'd given up hope so many times. Now I have more than I ever thought possible." He nodded his head toward the cell block. "That guy in there doesn't speak for me, or Dot, or anyone for that matter."

Welman relaxed and patted his son on the shoulder. "Thank you, son. I really needed to hear that."

Matrix put his arm around his father's shoulder and guided him away from Quarantine.

* * *

"You wanted to see me?" Bob asked, entering the infirmary.

Kevin was sitting on the bed holding an injector gun against his inner arm, the nozzle pressed into the skin just below the elbow joint. Phong watched patiently as he kept adjusting its position, trying to find a specific spot.

"Just a nano," Kevin said. "I'm having trouble finding a vain."

Kevin pressed the trigger and there was a tiny hissing sound like a vacuum being filled. Bob watched as a glass vial sticking out of the injector gun slowly filled with red fluid.

"What in the Net are you doing?" Bob asked.

Kevin released the trigger and pulled the glass vial out of the injector, holding it up to the light. "We needed a blood sample."

"Blood?" Bob asked, his eyes transfixed on the vial. " _That's_ your blood?"

Kevin nodded and handed the vial to Phong. "How much more do you think we'll need?"

"This should suffice for a cursory analysis," Phong replied.

"An analysis of what?" Bob asked.

"I had an idea about how we may earn Enzo-Two's cooperation," Kevin said. "But it's going to require some creative thinking."

Phong placed the vial inside a centrifuge and turned it on. The blood sample began spinning rapidly, the components slowly separating.

"Okay, I'll bite," Bob said. "What's your idea?"

"I've been thinking about your approach to viral reprogramming," Kevin said, "and I think you've got the right idea, you just need a better edge."

"A better edge?"

"Human beings have something called an immune system," Kevin explained. "It's a multifaceted defense system that protects our bodies from disease."

"What kind of disease?" Bob asked.

"All kinds. There are too many to name, so we usually just refer to them as pathogens. It's one of the oldest and most evolved mechanisms found in biological organisms."

"Okay, but what's this got to do with Enzo-Two?" Bob asked.

"Disinfection," Kevin said. "Well, not disinfection _per sae_. More like permanent suppression. I think we can use human B-cells to give Enzo-Two an immunity to Megabyte's viral infection. Think about it, if Enzo is free to think for himself, maybe he'll be more receptive to our help."

"Maybe," Bob muttered. "Just maybe. But what _are_ B-cells?"

"They're a component of the human immune response. When a virus infects a human host, B-cells produce proteins called antibodies which stick to the pathogen, rendering it inert. The host continues to carry the virus, but the body keeps producing the specific antibodies needed to neutralize the pathogen. That's how we become immune to certain infections, like chickenpox."

"And you think you can give this immune response to Enzo-Two?" asked Bob.

"At the very least we can approximate it," Kevin said. "We need to harvest B-cells from my blood and expose them to segments of Megabyte's viral code to see if they produce antibodies. If they do, the chances are good that at least one antibody will provide immunity."

"Then we'd just have to upload a program patch to give Enzo the ability to make that antibody!" exclaimed Bob.

"It's only a theory," Kevin said, "but it just might work."

Bob smiled, enthused by Kevin's idea. "Let's do it."

* * *

Matrix marched back into Quarantine, coming to a stop outside the cell occupied by his Mainframe-Two counterpart. Enzo-Two looked at Matrix and sneered.

"Here to threaten me some more?" Enzo-Two said.

"Actually, I was thinking of something else," Matrix said, cracking his knuckles. He saw apprehension flicker across his double's face. Satisfied, Matrix opened a vidwindow interface. "Lucky for you, we're trying a new tactic." He began entering commands into the interface.

"Great," Enzo-Two said. "Can't wait to watch you fail miserably. _Again._ "

A virus scan passed over Enzo-Two from head to toe, the field eliciting a tingling sensation as it descended over him.

Matrix watched the code scroll up the screen until he found the segment he was looking for, highlighted in green. "Got it." He made a copy of the code, put it on a vidpad, and closed the interface. "You sit tight. Don't go anywhere."

"Ha! That's a good one," Enzo-Two replied. "Did you hear the joke about the one-eyed sprite?"

Matrix stepped up to the firewall and glared at his other self, and thought about how awful it was that he shared this duplicate with his little brother.

"You know how viral infection works, right?" Matrix asked. "It twists your personality. Makes you more compliant. Makes you _weak_."

Enzo-Two rolled his eyes. "Is this your new tactic? You're going to bore me to death?"

"Right now, the smartest sprites in Mainframe are working on a way to cure you of Megabyte's infection," Matrix said. "If they succeed, you'll go back to being the person you were before he infected you, which means all the terrible things you've said and done since then will come back to haunt you all at once."

"Do you expect me to get on my knees?" Enzo-Two asked. "Pray for the User to have mercy on me?"

"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, kid," Matrix said. The renegade leaned in and whispered, "We've got the User on our side."

* * *

"I'm telling you, Dot," Bob said over the vidwindow, "this could really work."

"But it's only a theory!" Dot exclaimed.

"Negative result on sensors," Specky interrupted. "Should we do another scan?"

Dot looked at the floor map of Mainframe, wondering where Enzo-Two could've hidden the logic bomb. They had done twelve scans of the system and found nothing. "No, Specky," she replied. "Somehow I don't think thirteen will be our lucky number."

"Should we consider evacuation?" Specky asked.

All eyes were on Dot. The command-dot-com could feel the expectation from her troops. She looked at Bob through the vidwindow, saw a resolve in him that she hadn't seen in a long time, and came to a decision. "We're not there yet, but contact Captain Capacitor and advise him that he should leave the system as soon as he's completed his business here."

"Yes, sir-ma'am," Specky replied.

The War Room resumed its normal tempo; although, the new atmosphere felt tense. Dot tried to ignore it—she was already tense enough—and turned her attention back to Bob. "If this doesn't work, we'll have to evacuate the city."

"I know," Bob said. "But it's going to work, Dot. Trust me."

* * *

Phong dipped a pipette into the vial of Kevin's blood, which had separated as he had predicted, into different liquid components. He made sure to gather a sample of the milky substance Kevin identified as plasma.

"If I recall my honors biology correctly, that's where the B-cells will have the greatest concentration," Kevin said.

Phong squeezed the pipette and smeared a drop of plasma on a glass slide. He inserted the sample into a scanner and opened a vidwindow, displaying a 500x magnified view of the plasma. The picture showed a conglomeration of lumpy objects suspended against a yellowish background.

"Based on your description of the B-cell, I believe I've found what we are looking for," Phong said.

A green box appeared on the vidwindow, surrounding a roughly circular object that was almost the same color as its background. The magnification increased by a thousand and the B-cell filled the vidwindow.

"Commencing scan," Bob said, who was operating a more sensitive scanner nearby.

A new vidwindow opened, and a three-dimensional model of the B-cell appeared. It was spherical, with a bumpy, gelatinous membrane surrounding a dark nucleus. Protruding from the membrane were appendages that looked like tentacles.

"Scan complete," Bob announced. "This virtualization of the B-cell is an exact simulacrum of the one we just scanned. All we need to do now is expose it to a sample of viral code and see what happens."

As if on cue, Matrix entered the infirmary and handed a vidpad to Bob. "One virus scan," he said.

The Guardian took the vidpad and copied the viral code. On the vidwindow, a small green dot, the representation of viral code, drifted across empty space and bounced off the B-cell. This occurred for several microseconds. Within the virtual laboratory, the B-cell and the pathogen repeatedly come into contact, bouncing off the edges of the vidwindow, hitting each other, rebounding and making contact over and over, again and again. Matrix crossed his arms and began pacing the room. Bob, Kevin, and Phong were fixed on the vidwindow, their expressions expectant but growing more worried with each passing nanosecond. Finally, Bob's scanner went off.

"Something's happening," Bob said. "The B-cell is responding to the viral code."

He altered the contrast of the vidwindow, revealing that the B-cell was excreting countless tiny Y-shaped objects. They were filling up the empty space between it and the green-glowing pathogen.

"Are those antibodies?" asked Bob.

Kevin nodded. "They're meant to bind to the surface of the pathogen, preventing it from attacking healthy cells."

"How is it done?" Phong asked as Bob zoomed in on the green dot.

"Think of the way a key fits inside a lock," Kevin said. "The effectiveness of the antibody depends mostly on its shape. The pathogen's surface is covered with tendrils that allow it to stick to other cells. An antibody with the right shape gums up the works, so to speak. B-cells produce many antibodies with different shapes, the idea being that one type will do the job."

On the vidwindow, they all watched as antibodies began sticking to the pathogen. Soon, the whole green dot was covered with them.

"We need a scan of whatever antibody is sticking to the pathogen," Kevin said.

A new, smaller vidwindow appeared. Lines of code quickly filled up its screen. "Done," Bob said. He stuck his hand inside the vidwindow, as if he were reaching inside a cabinet, and withdrew a vial of amber-colored liquid. "We have our antibody." He handed the vial to Phong, who pushed it into an injector gun. "Well," he said, "I guess there's only one way to test it."

* * *

Enzo-Two heard the heavy security door open followed by the footfalls of several people walking up the cell block. When he opened his eyes and looked past the firewall, he saw that a crowd had gathered outside his cell: his Mainframe-One counterpart, Dot, the _other_ Matrix, the robot claiming to be his father, Bob, Phong, Hack and Slash, and finally, his other target. His was the only name he didn't know offhand.

"Wow, so many familiar faces," Enzo-Two quipped. "And all so serious."

Dot tapped the controls to the cell, and the firewall vanished. "Hack, Slash: restrain him."

The two droids entered Enzo-Two's cell and seized the young sprite by his arms, pinning him against the wall.

"Alright, kid, time to take your medicine," Slash said.

Dot entered the cell next, a hypodermic injector in her hand.

"Is that supposed to be some miracle cure?" Enzo-Two taunted. "It won't work."

"Then you've got nothing to worry about," Dot said.

Enzo-Two began to struggle as she neared, but Hack and Slash had him firmly pinned.

"It'll be easier if you just relax," Dot said. She pressed the injector against Enzo's neck and pulled the trigger. There was a hiss and the amber liquid inside the vial disappeared. Dot stepped back, waiting.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Annoyed," Enzo-Two said. "What did you expect would…"

Enzo-Two's body went rigid then he began to convulse, his body shaking uncontrollably. His eyes rolled up into his skull, and his skin began to glow green. He cried out in pain as tendrils of electrical energy passed out of his icon and down his face and neck. Green light erupted out of the icon as if something was being dispelled. The green and black viral colors faded, replaced with the familiar white and black color scheme.

The dramatic lightshow ended, and Enzo-Two relaxed against Hack and Slash's hold.

"Let him go, boys," Dot ordered.

Enzo-Two sank to his knees, his breathing deep and labored. He removed his ball cap and stared, slack jawed, at his disinfected icon.

"It worked," Enzo-One said, equally mystified.

Dot tossed the injector aside and knelt next to her brother, placing her hands on his shoulders, and forcing him to face her. "Enzo," she said. "Please, help us. We're not your enemy. We're your family."

Something had changed. She could tell. The icy hardness of his features that she had come to associate with Matrix had melted. Dot looked into his eyes and saw that he was close to tears.

"Enzo," she said, "where's the logic bomb? Just tell us where you hid it, and we'll help you."

Enzo slowly began shaking his head. "You don't understand." He grabbed his left sleeve and pulled it up, revealing the ticking timer on his arm. His next words were both horrifying and heartbreaking. "I am the bomb."


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8 – Sawyer 2.0**

Enzo-Two laid on the infirmary's diagnostic bed while a scanning field moved over his body. Phong had administered a mild sedative to help the young sprite sleep through the side effects of disinfection while they conducted tests. AndrAIa was now present along with everyone else who had been in Quarantine.

"The logic bomb is integrated into his code," Phong said, reading the results of the scan off a vidwindow. "The only way to remove it is with the command protocol that created it."

"Marvelous," muttered Matrix. "So we've got to send him back to Mainframe-Two."

"And we have…" Phong read the timer on Enzo-Two's arm. "…less than seven milliseconds to do so."

Dot took Bob's hand and squeezed gently. "You've done good work today," she said. And then she added, "All of you. I wish this one victory was enough, and I wish we could stop to enjoy it, but we've still got a lot of work to do, and very little time to do it."

 _What if the only battles we can win are the ones the bad guys can afford to lose?_ Enzo asked himself. He had been dwelling on the question ever since his first encounter with Enzo-Two. He looked at Kevin and thought of his answer. _You fight anyway,_ the User had said. Was there a better way, a permanent cure for crisis? Or was life an endless war interspersed with periods of calm? His eyes shifted to his doppelganger and concluded the former was probably true. Then an image of Zoe popped into Enzo's mind, and something wholly unexpected occurred to him: _Maybe the antidote to crisis lies somewhere in those occasional stretches of peace._

Dot turned to Kevin and Welman. "How's the algorithm coming along?" she asked.

"We're almost finished," Welman replied.

"When it's complete I'll send it to my team, and they'll write a program to run it using the Alpha-9," Kevin added.

"Can you complete it before time runs out?" asked Dot.

"Maybe," Kevin said with a sigh. "I'll give it my best shot."

"I know you will," Dot said. "Where are we on hardware?"

"Hugh Branch has already drawn up plans," said AndrAIa. "They're calling it the 'Universal Nullifier.'"

"Colorful," said Welman, "but accurate."

"Sis," Enzo interrupted, "when is Capacitor scheduled to leave?"

"Last I checked, they were making preparations to get underway," Dot said.

Enzo nodded and moved towards the door. "I need to disappear for a while."

"Go get 'er, you little heartbreaker," AndrAIa said.

Enzo tried to hide the smirk that crept upon his face as he left the infirmary.

"I'd better disappear for a while, too," Kevin said. "If you need me, I'll be in the science lab."

"You should take a break, Kevin," AndrAIa said. "You won't be good to anybody if you're exhausted."

"I'm okay," Kevin replied, although he felt absolutely wrecked. Time worked differently in cyberspace. A whole week could sometimes be crammed into a single day, and Kevin's internal clock would do its best to adjust, usually with the help of energy shakes from Dot's Diner. Which reminded him: "I may need some more energy shakes, though."

"I'll make sure to vidwindow Cecil for a delivery," Dot said.

Kevin nodded his thanks and left the infirmary. As he navigated the labyrinthine corridors and hallways of the Principal Office, he reflected on the possibility that he _might not_ figure out the algorithm in time. Perhaps if he had days or weeks to work on the problem, it might be a different story, but seven _milliseconds_ (which was equivalent to seven hours from Kevin's perspective)…?

He entered the science lab with the telltale beginnings of a tension headache, tendrils of pain worming their way up into his brain from the base of his skull. Kevin picked up the stylus and ignored the pain, stepping up to the vidwindow upon which his great work was written. Then his eyes fell on the lower right corner of the window, where there had been a blank space, and his eyes went wide.

Someone had completed the algorithm! The blank space where he had left off hours earlier had been filled with the recursive step he had been trying to puzzle out before going off on the tangent about antibodies, and stranger still, the solution was written out in a hand identical to his own!

"How… _who_ did this?" he wondered aloud.

"I did," answered an eerily familiar voice.

Kevin peeked around the edge of the vidwindow, his eyes seeking out the source. A man was sitting in the back left corner of the room, hidden from Kevin's line of sight by the vidwindow. He had curly bronze hair, a thin, lean figure, and an angular face with high cheekbones. His clothing skin consisted of a purple jacket, black pants, and boots. Like most clothing skins, the garment was form fitting and incorporated things like elbow and kneepads. A utility belt linked the pants and jacket together seamlessly at the waist.

He wore a standard black-and-white icon on the left side of his chest, and on his left wrist was a silvery band with a circular face much like a watch: a cybernaut's retrieval module. Despite the superficial physical differences, Kevin had no trouble identifying the stranger, who was, in fact, not a stranger at all, but an analog of himself.

"Or maybe I should say: _we_ did it," the other Sawyer said with a grin.

* * *

 _The Saucy Mare's Revenge_ looked almost ready to haul anchor when Enzo landed his zip board. The crew was walking up the ramps back to the ship, and Enzo quickly mounted one of the planks to the main deck.

"Ah, young Mister Matrix!" exclaimed Capacitor. "Come to see us off, lad?"

"I, uh…" Enzo scratched his head. "I was hoping to say goodbye to Zoe."

Capacitor pointed to a person-sized bucket that crowned the center mast. "She be in the crow's nest. But I'd hurry if I was ye. We're about to haul anchor."

"I'll be quick," Enzo said. "Thanks, Gavin."

Enzo decompressed his zip board and levitated up to the crow's nest. Zoe was leaning over the edge, smiling as Enzo rose to meet her.

"Hi," he said when they were eye level with each other.

"Hey," she replied. "I was worried I wouldn't see you before I left."

"I'm just sorry I have to say goodbye already," Enzo said. "I was hoping to show you around Mainframe some more. Maybe go for another drive, this time without a homicidal hitchhiker."

"I'd like that a lot," Zoe said. "The captain says we make pretty frequent stops in Mainframe."

"So I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future," Enzo said.

A gruff voice called up to the crow's nest from the main deck. "Eh, boy!" called Capacitor. "Stop wasting time and _kiss_ the girl!"

Zoe smiled and laughed. "You'd better do what he says. The captain isn't known for his patience."

Enzo leaned forward and planted a simple, chaste kiss on Zoe's lips. A second, longer kiss followed. A voice from somewhere within Enzo's mind shouted, _Finally,_ but anything else was lost over the roaring sound of his heart pounding away in his ears.

When they separated, Enzo was gratified to see Zoe's cheeks flushed, her lips curved in a satisfied half-smile. Reluctantly, Enzo pushed off of the crow's nest.

"Bye," he said, floating away.

"Bye," replied Zoe, "see you soon."

"I hope so."

Enzo turned his zip board back towards the Principal Office.

* * *

"My God," Kevin said. "Are you…me?"

"I'm you," confirmed Sawyer, "insofar as I'm the version of you native to Mainframe-Prime."

Kevin set his stylus on a nearby table. "Did you say Mainframe-Prime?"

"Its RAMM address is Mainframe-Zero," Sawyer clarified.

Kevin frowned. "There is no Mainframe-Zero," he said.

"Not yet," Sawyer replied.

"Excuse me?"

The other Sawyer stood up and moved closer. "Something you'll learn the more you use the RAMM: time isn't simultaneous across all universes. Some universes are older than others, some are younger. The universe I'm from doesn't even exist yet."

Kevin looked his Mainframe-Prime double up and down. "That might explain why we look…" Kevin struggled to find the right word.

"It's kind of like looking at two identical twins but they're not quite identical."

"Exactly," said Kevin. "My hair has always been brown, and it's never been curly like that." He pointed to his double's curly bronze locks.

"We're the same height," Sawyer noticed, "but you're bigger and broader than I am. Nice beard, by the way."

"Thanks."

"Had that long?" asked Sawyer.

"Not really," Kevin replied. "I started growing it around my birthday. I let my hair grow out, too. Used to keep it short."

"How old?"

"Thirty," Kevin said.

"I'm thirty-three," Sawyer said.

"You look younger."

Sawyer grimaced. "I get that a lot."

Kevin pointed to the vidwindow. "How did you figure out the last recursive step in the algorithm?"

"You're trying to neutralize every RAMM device in the multiverse," Sawyer said. "We had to do the same thing in my universe."

"Well, it obviously didn't work if you're here," Kevin said.

"Oh no, it worked," Sawyer explained. "Welman and I built a new RAMM using Herr Doktor's old research." He opened a pouch on his belt and pulled out his RAMM. It was a completely different design from both the Mainframe-One and Mainframe-Two models. Sawyer's RAMM device was a rectangular piece of machined aluminum with rounded edges and a large, glassy touchscreen.

"Wow," Kevin said. "This is a big improvement. The operating system looks much more intuitive."

"After we disabled all the other RAMMs, Welman and I actually figured out how to use the Universal Nullifier to recharge the power cell," Sawyer explained.

"Hang on," said Kevin. "If your Universal Nullifier already works, why do we have to build ours? My RAMM device and the one from Mainframe-Two shouldn't work at all."

"You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally," Sawyer said. "My universe doesn't exist yet, remember? If we assume the multiverse contains an infinite number of universes, we have to assume it contains infinite copies of the same universe and that the same events and actions are taking place across all identical universes. Some of these universes must share a causal link that transcends the phenomenon of linear time."

"If that's true, then these causally linked universes form something like a sub-multiverse within the greater structure," Kevin finished. "A multiverse of multiverses. Which means you're from another multiverse altogether!"

"So my Universal Nullifier only works within _my_ multiverse," finished Sawyer, "and yours will only work within _your_ multiverse."

Kevin sat down, rubbing his forehead. His tension headache was working its way forward, and the revelation he had just received from his Mainframe-Prime doppelganger had probably accelerated its progress. He could've accepted the existence of a single multiverse, but _multiple multiverses_ …? The implications were staggering. He visualized an infinitude of identical realities in which the same events played out across time, some of them sharing an invisible connection with other universes that were not-quite-identical, forming a smaller multiverse with in larger _supermultiverse_.

A pinpoint of pain flared inside his head like a firecracker, and he winced.

"Hey," asked Sawyer, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," Kevin replied. "Just a headache."

"I'd offer you some aspirin, but I'm fresh out," Sawyer said.

"It's fine," Kevin said. "It's been a busy day. First, I was working on this. Then I switched gears and worked on a viral immunity treatment."

"You just got around to that?" Sawyer asked.

"I'm sure I've done a few things you haven't yet," said Kevin.

"That's interesting," Sawyer said. "The sequence of events between our universes seems jumbled. How long have you been in Mainframe?"

"I've been making trips in and out of cyberspace for almost a year," Kevin said. "You?"

"I've been in Mainframe for about two weeks," Sawyer said. "From my perspective, we just found Megabyte's secret bunker."

"We only just found that today," replied Kevin. "So you haven't met Pythias yet, you don't even know about Martin's involvement…"

"Martin MacDonald!" exclaimed Sawyer. "Are you kidding? He's here somewhere?"

Kevin stopped himself mid-ramble. "I'd better not say anything else," he said. "Foreknowledge could be dangerous."

"I don't see how," Sawyer said. "There's no guarantee I'll have the exact same experiences you've had. What else has happened to you?"

"Nothing much," Kevin said, trying to sound nonchalant. "I've fought viruses, helped save the Net and Mainframe once or twice, traveled through time, and now I can add visiting a parallel universe to my resume."

"Is it just me," Sawyer asked, "or did you head just grow about two sizes?"

"Don't worry," Kevin said, "I'm sure you'll get there eventually."

A vidwindow appeared directly in front of Kevin with a video feed from Cecil at Dot's Diner. "I have your order of energy shakes, monsieur," announced the waiter.

A smaller vidwindow with a green background opened in front of the larger one. A similar window also appeared before Cecil. The two must've acted like a teleporter because Cecil's hand disappeared through the small window on his side and appeared through the one in the science lab. The waiter held out a drink carrier full of fresh energy shakes.

Kevin took the delivery and Cecil pulled his hand back into the diner. The small delivery vidwindows closed.

"Um…thanks, Cecil," Kevin said. "What do I owe you?"

"I have been informed zat ziss delivery is on the house, monsieur," said Cecil. Then he lowered his voice and leaned in closer to the vidwindow. "But I wouldn't get used to it if I were you."

The vidwindow closed unceremoniously.

"Wow," Sawyer said, who had been hidden on the other side of the vidwindow. "Cecil's a jerk in any reality."

Kevin took a long drink from one of the energy shakes, and his headache immediately abated. "Ahh. That's better."

"I'd take it easy with those," Sawyer said.

"Why, what's the matter?"

"They work on your body like energy drinks," Sawyer said. "Like health conscious Red Bull, if there is such a thing."

"So if I stop drinking them…"

"You crash," finished Sawyer. "Big time. I learned that the hard way."

Kevin looked at the energy shake in his hand and shrugged. "I guess I'll need my old man nap this afternoon." He took another sip. "So are you just hopping around the multiverse seeing what's what, or are you here for a reason?"

"I came to warn you," Sawyer said. "Every universe in your 'neighborhood' is on a convergent trajectory."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means your region of the multiverse is going to collapse soon," Sawyer said. "Like a Big Crunch. I have a theory that the rebound is what created, or _will create_ , my multiverse."

"Define soon," Kevin said. "Are we talking trillions or billions of years?"

"I mean soon," Sawyer said, "as in less than a decade."

"That's impossible," Kevin replied, shaking his head. "If that were true, my universe would already be contracting. Last time I checked, it's still expanding, and there's no reason to think other universes in my multiverse aren't doing the same."

"I'm only telling you what I know," said Sawyer, "this multiverse is ending soon. I thought you might've had a plan to deal with it."

"A plan to forestall Armageddon?" Kevin asked. "I'm good, but I'm not that good."

Sawyer rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "But you must do something," he said, "and whatever you do creates my universe." Then he cocked his head to the side. "Unless that _is_ what you do."

"You think I created, or _will create_ , your universe?" Kevin asked.

"Hmm," Sawyer said. "It does sound pretty farfetched."

Kevin remembered meeting Taylor, his double from an alternate timeline, and wondered if the place he had come from, a reality where Mainframe's Twin City had never been destroyed, was out there somewhere among the multiversity of universes. Was its address stored in the RAMM's memory? What was its number, he wondered?

"Not that farfetched," Kevin said.

Sawyer's RAMM sounded an alarm. He read the screen, and put it back in its pouch. "Almost time to go," he said.

"Sorry you've gotta dash," Kevin said. "It would've been neat to get to know one another better."

"I'm just glad I could help out," Sawyer said. "Good luck."

Kevin extended his hand. "See you around…Dr. Sawyer."

Sawyer-Prime disappeared just as he reached out to shake his hand. There was a loud pop where his vanished form left a void, and the air rushed to fill it.

Immediately, Kevin minimized the large vidwindow to vidpad proportions and opened another vidwindow to the War Room.

"What's up, Kevin?" asked Dot. "Did Cecil deliver your energy shakes?"

"I got it, Dot," Kevin said, "your defense strategy. It's done."

"That's great!" Dot exclaimed.

"I need you to set up a link so that I can speak with Tom," Kevin said. "I'm on my way to you now."

"Got it," Dot said. "Good work, Doc."

The vidwindow closed, and Kevin was struck by the moniker Dot had just used for him. Enzo had called him "Doc" on various occasions, as had Mouse, and Kevin admitted to himself that he liked it.

"Doc Sawyer," he said. "It's got a nice ring to it." And then he said to the empty room, "Thanks for the help, Doc."


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9 – Disinfected**

Pythias and Hexadecimal scrutinized the cosmos, the kaleidoscopic display twisting and turning as the forces of Order and Chaos pushed and pulled at the multiversity of universes within.

"That was…unexpected," Pythias finally said.

"Indeed," Hexadecimal replied.

"Did we do that?"

"Which part?" Hexadecimal asked. "The part where they disinfected Enzo-Two or the part where Dr. Sawyer met his next incarnation?"

"The probability of either event occurring by itself was astronomical," said Pythias. "But both occurring together? We must've done something to influence continuum probabilities."

"The very act of observing a thing changes it," Hexadecimal said. "It's completely possible that we willed an improbable sequence of events to occur without being conscious of it."

"Or…" Pythias's voice trailed off as he looked in the direction of the tower. "You said there were higher forces at work."

Hexadecimal nodded, but this time she refused to look at the monolithic structure in the distance. "I think it wants Sawyer."

"Things do seem to revolve around him quite a bit," Pythias said. "But why him?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," said Hexadecimal, "but if I had to guess, it's because he has something the tower lacks."

"What in the Net could that be?" Pythias asked.

"That's just it, isn't it? He's not from the Net. He's a User, a human being."

"I don't see how that matters," Pythias said. "We exist outside all time and space. We influence the course of history. What can he do that we can't?"

Hexadecimal stepped away from the bottomless pit that was the universe of cyberspace and spread her arms wide. "Look around us, Pythias. What do you see?"

"The same thing you see, I assume," he replied. "Nothing. Except the tower."

"Exactly," Hexadecimal said. "Yet we know there's more." She pointed to the pit. "This is our universe. The realm of cyberspace. Perhaps we can alter history, but only within this sphere. What about Kevin's world, the world of the Users? If we truly are outside time and space, where is it?"

Pythias pondered the question. The answer seemed obvious. "Inside the tower?"

"I believe so," Hexadecimal said. "It explains why we can never reach it."

"I don't understand," Pythias said.

"There is an order to things, Pythias," said Hexadecimal. "The two of us are very powerful, yes, but we are limited. There must be levels of existence above us with beings who perform functions similar to ours but on larger and grander scales."

"You mean Gods," Pythias said.

"Perhaps," Hexadecimal said. "I suspect whatever is in that tower is the closest thing a human being can conceive of as a God, and it has taken notice of our dear Dr. Sawyer."

"But why?" Pythias asked.

"Because Sawyer has transcended the natural order," said Hexadecimal. "He opened a door between the world of cyberspace and the world of the Users, something I suspect should've been impossible, yet it happened anyway. Wouldn't that grab your attention?"

Pythias felt an uncomfortable prickling of gooseflesh work its way up his neck. "Well, when you put it like that…but how do you know all of this?"

"I've been waiting for you to ask me that question," Hexadecimal said, "but I'm afraid you won't like the answer."

Pythias remained patiently silent.

"I think I know because it's my purpose to know," she said. "Just like it's your purpose to ask me these things."

"To what end?" Pythias asked.

Hexadecimal was vaguely aware that her next words were not entirely her own, but she knew they needed to be said regardless. "Because the truth, while unpleasant and confusing, must be known." She finally turned and looked at the tower. "And the truth wants to get acquainted with Kevin Sawyer."

* * *

Enzo-Two woke up slowly, ponderously climbing up the rungs of unconsciousness. He fought it, wanting to remain asleep, but his body refused to comply. When he awoke fully, and opened his eyes, he first felt confusion. Where was he? He couldn't remember the last time he'd been in a room so clean. Then something in his memory clicked into place, like a key pushing the tumblers in a lock, and it all came back.

 _Mainframe-One. A parallel universe._

He rubbed his fingertips over his icon, remembering what had happened in his cell after Dot injected him with her "miracle cure." There had been pain followed by radiating heat throughout his entire body. It had felt like he was burning up. Then, overcome with weakness, Phong had given him something to make him sleep. How long had he been unconscious?

Enzo-Two rolled up his sleeve and saw that the timer on his forearm had diminished by a full millisecond. He squeezed his eyes shut in frustration, but there was something else, too. It took him several moments to recognize the feeling, as he had not felt anything like it in a very long time: hopelessness. Was this what the big green guy had meant? Had the infection kept this emotion at bay? If so, what other feelings had yet to assault him?

 _Don't think about it,_ he told himself. _Concentrate on how you're going to fix this_.

"So, you're awake," someone said.

The big green guy was standing in a corner on the other side of the room, arms crossed, a frown on his face.

"Y'know it's creepy to watch people while they sleep," Enzo-Two said.

"Get used to it," Matrix replied.

Enzo sat up and twisted around so that he was sitting on the edge of the diagnostic bed. "So what now?" he asked.

"That all depends on you," said Matrix. "Do you want our help or not?"

"I'm not really in a position to refuse," Enzo-Two said. "Not that you _can_ help me. Only Megabyte can remove the logic bomb, so unless you're planning to give me what I came here for…"

"We don't trade lives," Matrix said. "Maybe you've forgotten how we do things in Mainframe. We stick together."

"There is no Mainframe anymore," said Enzo-Two, jumping off the bed. "The best thing would be to give me my RAMM, and let me go back to my reality."

"Can't do that," Matrix said, "not while Megabyte is still a threat."

Enzo-Two slammed his fist on a rolling stand next to the bed, knocking an instrument tray and assorted medical tools to the floor. "If this is your idea of help, I was better off infected!" he screamed. "At least then I didn't care so much whether I lived or died."

AndrAIa entered the infirmary during Enzo-Two's outburst and immediately sized up the situation. "Well, we do care whether you live or die," she said.

"I'm touched," Enzo-Two mocked.

"You must be hungry," AndrAIa said. "The Matrix men always get testy on an empty stomach."

Enzo-Two cocked an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"

"I'm AndrAIa," she replied. "And no, I guess we haven't met."

Enzo-Two noted the gold ring on her left hand and her obvious baby bump. He looked at Matrix and cocked his head from side to side. "At least he's got good taste," he grumbled.

"Why don't we hit up the diner," AndrAIa suggested. "I don't know about you two, but I'm starving."

Enzo-Two rolled his eyes, but there was no way he was going to turn down one of Dot's energy shakes. "Sure," he said. "The condemned always gets one last meal, right?"

"You're not dead yet, kid," Matrix said.

* * *

Kevin and Welman finished coding the algorithm in the War Room, their completed work displayed on the main vidwindow. Elsewhere, in a place called Green Hill, another pair of eyes was scanning the code on his own computer screen.

"I don't know, Kevin," said Tom Keller, his voice emanating from a separate vidwindow. "This may be beyond the computer's capabilities."

Tom Keller was Project Virtual Man's associate director, Kevin's right-hand man in the real world. Following Kevin's first excursion into Mainframe, Welman Matrix used the Gate Command to create a portal to the Alpha-9 system, the quantum computer Kevin used to send himself back and forth between cyberspace and the world beyond, the world of the Users. Using the portal as a conduit, Kevin and the other members of his team could remain in contact with the cyberverse.

"What does Vivian think?" Kevin asked.

There was a pause, and then a female voice with a British accent replaced Tom's. "Turning this algorithm into a program isn't the problem," Vivian Thompson said. "The computer just wasn't built to run anything like it."

"We've got to try," Kevin said.

"Kevin," Vivian said, "I'm afraid the program could cause the system to crash. If that happens while you're in the cyberverse…" Her voice trailed off, the implication being that Kevin could become trapped in Mainframe.

Kevin drummed his fingers on the console. "What if I kept the system stable from the inside?" he asked.

"How would you do that?" Vivian asked.

Abruptly, Tom broke back in. "Wait, you want to physically visit the Alpha-9 system?"

"Maybe it would be easier to make the changes from inside cyberspace," Kevin reasoned. "If it's anything like Mainframe, I could make alterations from the Principal Office."

"Except the Alpha-9 won't be like Mainframe," Tom said. "It operates under completely different rules."

"What do you mean, Tom?" asked Dot.

"Your world is binary," Tom explained. "States of reality are either true or false, and they're always either true or false. The world inside the Alpha-9 isn't binary. Things can be true or false or somewhere in-between. Neither the processes that occur inside a quantum system nor the things those processes act on can be considered physically real."

"I can't imagine a place like that," Dot said.

"No one can," Tom replied. "Which is why going there is a bad idea."

"That may be true," Kevin said, "but it has to be done. It's the only way we can get the information we need to complete the Universal Nullifier."

Another, longer period of silence followed. Kevin could imagine Tom and Vivian arguing over whether or not to help him carry out what was clearly an insane mission into the quantum world. They would help him, of course. They always did, despite Kevin's penchant for taking insane risks. After all, it had been an insane risk that had brought him to Mainframe in the first place.

"If you're going to do this," Bob said to Kevin, "you shouldn't go alone."

"I was kinda hoping someone would volunteer," Kevin said.

"I'll go," said Welman.

"Sorry, dad," Dot said, "but I need you here helping Hugh Branch complete the Universal Nullifier. Bob can go with Kevin."

"Alright, look," Tom's voice interjected, "your best bet is to enter the system through the wormhole we use to communicate with Mainframe. That means using the Gate Command."

"I had the same thought," Kevin said.

"Vivian is already working on the program," Tom said. "Your job will be to create an environment where the program can run, but we don't know how to help you do that."

"We'll have to figure it out once we get there," Bob said.

"Be very careful," Tom said. "The Alpha-9 is extremely sensitive. Anything you do could cause decoherence."

"Deco- _what_?" asked Dot.

"It means the loss of information," Kevin explained. "If a quantum system isn't completely isolated from its surroundings, the desired behavior of the system is eventually lost. The less isolated the system is, the quicker coherent behavior is lost."

"So just by entering the system, we may destroy it?" Bob exclaimed.

"It's possible," Kevin said, "but unlikely. It just means the computer may lose some of its processing capability _sometime_ in the future."

"Well, I guess if you're going to do this, you'd better do it now," Tom said. "We'll keep an eye on things from out here."

Dot nodded at her father. "Dial the Gate, dad."

* * *

Enzo-Two finished his fourth energy shake in a row with a contented belch, slamming the cup on the table. "There's nothing like the original recipe," he sighed.

Cecil appeared next to their table, addressing AndrAIa, "Madame, I must protest! One Enzo is an irritation. Two are annoying. But a third, and one so _uncouth_ …the situation is impossible!"

"Careful, Cecil," Enzo-Two said, "you're scrap where I come from. And guess who hauled your bitmap to the data dump?"

"You're a long way from home," Matrix said, silencing his Mainframe-Two double. "Get the kid another energy shake, Cecil."

The snobby French server navigated away from the table, chin thrusting into the air. "Hmph, and perhaps I'll format him some manners while I'm at it."

"I miss Entry Unit Two-Six," Enzo-Two mumbled.

"You've had four energy shakes in a row," AndrAIa said, changing the subject. "When was the last time you ate?"

"It's not like I'm starving," Enzo-Two said. "When Megabyte took the diner, he changed the energy shake recipe. Claimed it was superior. I just haven't tasted a real shake in a long time. As far as last meals go, it hits the spot."

"This isn't you last meal," AnrAIa said. "We'll find a way to remove the logic bomb."

"I don't need your platitudes," Enzo-Two said. "Only Megabyte can diffuse it, and he'd rather see me blow up your system than return to Mainframe-Two empty handed."

"Then we won't send you home empty handed," Matrix said.

"Sparky?" asked AndrAIa.

Before Matrix could elaborate, the doors to the diner banged open, and Enzo-Two locked eyes with his Mainframe-One counterpart. "I haven't been looking forward to this," he said.

Enzo-One marched up to their table. "So, we're all friends now? All's forgiven?"

"I guess that depends on you," Enzo-Two said with a cocky smile. "Looking for a rematch?"

Enzo-One balled his fists at his sides and puffed out his chest as if he were ready to throw down right in the middle of Dot's Diner. "Anytime. Anywhere, dipswitch," he said.

" _Not_ today," AndrAIa said firmly, "and _not_ here."

"Yeah," Enzo-Two said. "I don't want to make you bleed all over Dot's clean floors."

"That's funny," said Enzo-One. "So far the only one who's done any bleeding is you."

Enzo-Two leapt to his feet. "That's a good point. Maybe I should balance the scales."

Not one to refuse a challenge, Enzo-One replied, "You're welcome to try."

"Matrix," AndrAIa whispered, " _do_ something."

The Renegade nodded as if in agreement that something should've been done, but then he held up his empty shake cup. "Can I get a refill?" he called out.

"Outside," Enzo-Two growled. "Now."

The two Enzos left the diner to square off in the parking lot. Patrons migrated to the booths along the front windows for a better view of the coming fight. Outside, Frisket looked from one Enzo to the other, his eyes both confused and worried. The feral canine simply had no idea who to root for.

"I can't believe you're going to let this happen," AndrAIa said.

"Believe me, they need this," Matrix replied. "Better for it to happen sooner rather than later."

"I understand the male need to express aggression," AndrAIa said, her eyes boring holes into the side of her husband's head, "but this is more than just a barroom brawl. They'll kill each other."

Matrix grunted and surrendered. "Okay, okay. Hey, _Seecil_! I need a vidwindow."

Outside, Enzo-One and Enzo-Two circled each other like a couple of attack dogs, fists raised and ready to fly. Finally, Enzo-One closed the distance between them and struck first. Enzo-Two blocked his opponent's blow easily, beginning a long and exhaustive fight.

* * *

The portal shimmered like a pool of mercury, casting translucent rays of unearthly light across the Core Room. Bob and Kevin stood before the Gate Command, ready to depart Mainframe.

"You really don't know what to expect?" Bob asked.

"I don't," Kevin replied. "I've never even thought about visiting the Alpha-9 before. Too dangerous."

"I'm inspired with confidence," Bob said. Glitch beeped, and Bob raised his keytool to answer an incoming call from Dot in the War Room.

"Tom says the system is stable and so is the portal," Dot said. "You're good to go."

"Copy and paste that," Bob said.

"Be safe, boys," Dot said.

"Don't worry, Dot," Kevin quipped. "We'll be back in time for tea and crumpets." He slapped Bob on the shoulder. "Time to boldly go."

He and Bob stepped forward, stopped at the edge of the portal, and, taking a deep breath, crossed the threshold.

Kevin had gotten used to wormhole travel, so he was no stranger to the disorientation of crossing dimensions. Still, nothing could have prepared him or Bob for what awaited them on the other side.


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10 – Journey into Mystery**

The first thing Kevin felt were his feet: they were wet. He and Bob had stepped out of the portal and right onto a beach, very close to shore. Before them were the limits of a vast and beautiful city, its buildings exquisitely angular and glowing with crystalline radiance. It was as if the structures themselves had been sculpted from diamond and placed over an intense light source to sparkle like a chandelier. The further away from shore, the higher the buildings rose, their rectangular faces casting pale rays into space. The city was built along the curve of a vast and tranquil bay, which had presumably been carved out by the warm, tranquil waters currently soaking through his boots.

"Ugh, spammit," Kevin said, lapsing into the vernacular of the cyberverse.

"What's wrong?" asked Bob.

"Wet feet," he replied. "Super uncomfortable. C'mon, let's get out of the water."

As they moved further ashore, Kevin noticed they were on a pebble beach, not a sandy one. Bending down, he picked up a rock and examined it. It was smooth, like a river rock, but it had the texture of crystal, not stone. The closest thing he could compare it to was dark volcanic glass. He picked up another rock, and noted that it was perfectly identical in size, shape, and texture. Looking around, and observing the uniformity of the shore, he decided that the entire beach was composed of copies of the same black ingot. Dropping one, he pocketed the other.

"Souvenir," he said, turning to Bob. Then Kevin froze, his expression bewildered.

"What?" Bob asked.

But then Bob himself was immediately taken aback. Something about him, about both of them, had changed upon entering the system.

"Kevin!" Bob said. "You've changed."

That wasn't entirely accurate. Bob had no trouble recognizing the Virtual Man, but his features had indeed changed.

 _No,_ Bob thought, _not changed. Enhanced!_ That was the best word to describe what he was seeing. The _image_ of Kevin that was being registered by Bob's brain had increased in resolution, and if he was interpreting the look on Kevin's face correctly, he was seeing him at a higher resolution, as well.

"Bob," Kevin uttered, "you look…almost _human_."

As if the same idea occurred to them both at the exact same time, Bob and Kevin turned their eyes down to gaze into the water. The reflective surface was almost a perfect mirror, and both Kevin and Bob crouched lower to get a better look at themselves. Kevin's reflection was much closer to what he saw in the mirror when he was outside, in the physical universe. In fact, he was hard pressed to find any difference at all, and although he was surprised to see his non-Virtual Man reflection peering back at him, at least the image was not completely alien. Bob, on the other hand, was seeing an almost completely different person in the water.

His skin was still blue and his hair was still silvery, but his features were much more finely rendered than they had been before crossing over into the Alpha-9 system. Kevin could see individual strands of hair where before they had blended into a single amorphous mass of silicone dreadlocks. Likewise, where his skin had been smooth and uniform, now there were laugh lines sketched on his face and a few horizontal creases on his forehead.

Kevin waved his hand over his face. "Bob, he said, "this is what I normally look like. When I'm not in the cyberverse, I mean."

Bob looked at Kevin with wide, almost panicked eyes. "It's amazing," he said. "There's so much detail. But is it permanent?"

Kevin shook his head. "I think it's just the environment," he replied. "We should return to normal once we return to the cyberverse."

Their mutual reverie was interrupted by a voice calling to them from the shore. "Gentlemen, if you'd please come ashore. I'm sure you'd be much more comfortable on dry land."

Their eyes fell upon a solitary figure standing at the water's edge. He was an older man with thinning white hair and tanned, leathery skin. His clothing skin consisted of a black frock coat, black dress pants and shoes, and a white shirt with a high, banded collar. Bob and Kevin climbed the rest of the way out of the water and stood before the old man.

"My name is Zuse Conrad," said the old man. "I'm the system administrator. I, of course, know you, Dr. Sawyer, and you as well, Guardian Bob. Welcome to Alpha-9."

Bob and Kevin exchanged befuddled looks.

"How do you already know who we are?" Bob asked.

"I'll be happy to explain everything," Zuse said, "but first a change in venue is required. Follow me, please. I have a car waiting."

With few options open to them, Bob and Kevin followed Zuse Conrad up a path that led away from the beach and to a piece of flat, open ground. Kevin was surprised to find himself walking on grass. _Glowing grass._

He knelt down to run his hands through the soft, leafy blades. "This is grass," Kevin said. Except it couldn't be, he knew. For one thing, grass didn't glow.

"This way, if you please, gentlemen," beckoned Zuse.

He stood next to a vehicle with no wheels, so Kevin assumed it was a hovercraft of some kind. Unlike Bob's 262 convertible, this car was an enclosed luxury sedan with a curvy metallic body and darkened windows. The doors opened DeLorean style and inside was a roomy compartment for four passengers: two in the front, two in the back. Zuse climbed into what was traditionally the driver's seat in American-made cars, although there was no steering wheel or controls of any kind that Kevin could identify. Bob took the seat behind Zuse and Kevin rode shotgun. The doors closed automatically after they were seated and, almost immediately, the car rose up into the air.

"Were you actually expecting us?" Kevin asked.

"Indeed," Zuse replied. "You can't perceive it, but you've been here for quite some time."

"I have? I mean, _we_ have?"

"Sometimes it's just you," Zuse replied. "Sometimes you have a companion, and it's almost always Bob."

"Maybe we should've brought Phong," Bob said. "He's good at riddles."

"I can only respond to your questions in a manner consistent with your level of comprehension, Guardian Bob," Zuse said.

"I think he just called me basic," Bob said.

"But very politely," remarked Kevin.

From above, the Alpha-9 system looked like an ordinary coastal city with a few notable exceptions. Above them, thunderclouds, dark and flickering, obscured the sky for as far as Kevin's eyes could see. Beyond the city were the gentle slopes of a mountain range, their peaks rising up to kiss oblivion and then disappearing into mist.

"Is this the whole system?" asked Kevin.

"Goodness, no," replied Zuse. "This sector is called The Bay. It's our residential area."

"A bay implies an ocean," Kevin said, "or a river. Which is it?"

"Alpha-9 sits on the coast of the Simulacra Sea," said Zuse, "a virtually inexhaustible source of liquid helium-3."

"Wait," Kevin said, "are you trying to tell me we were standing in a superfluid?"

"That is correct," Zuse said. "It's the basis of all our fabricated materials. We use it to make everything."

The vehicle turned toward the mountains, ascending into the clouds as it did so.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Bob.

"The Plateau," replied Zuse, "where the Principal Office is located."

All around them, bursts of light illuminated the gloomy, all-encompassing mists, only to reveal a greater accumulation of dreary vapor in all directions. It reminded Kevin of the time he had flown over a Nor'easter on a late night trans-Atlantic flight out of Boston. From his window looking down at the storm, he could see the lightning dancing within the clouds. It had been an awe-inspiring sight to behold then, but now that he was up close and personal with the forces of nature, he was terrified.

"Don't mind the Electron Cloud, Creator," Zuse said, as if sensing Kevin's apprehension. "It's completely harmless."

Kevin's head snapped around so fast, Bob thought it might spin off his neck.

Stuttering, Kevin asked, "You…you know… _what_ I am?"

"Yes, of course," Zuse said, as if meeting his maker were no more remarkable than meeting a cousin at a family reunion. "You are Kevin Sawyer, the Creator of this system."

"You seem to know a lot," Bob said, "more than seems possible considering that we just met."

"I suppose it would seem that way to linear beings such as yourselves," Zuse said. "Let me put it to you this way: this is your first time meeting me, but it's not the first time that I've met the two of you. Ah, here we are!"

The clouds parted like curtains, and before them emerged a flat plane. Perched on the plateau was a prodigiously large pyramid of dark glass and steel. The sky beyond the clouds was a uniform teal green color, and dancing across the heavens, like flecks inside a snow globe, were specks of gold, their seemingly random motions etching gilded paths into the firmament.

The hovercar leveled off and made a wide turn towards the dark pyramid. As they approached, Kevin saw a section of the base slide upwards. Their vehicle slowed on its final approach and glided effortlessly into a brightly lit landing bay. The car gently touched down, and the doors sprang open.

"Here we are, gentlemen," Zuse said, climbing out. "This way, please."

Bob and Kevin followed obediently, trailing behind Zuse like a couple of children in a grocery store. Their guide came to a stop before an arch set into a wall. He tapped a series of keys on a keypad next to the arch, and suddenly the section of wall within the arch disappeared, revealing a room beyond.

"After you," Zuse beckoned.

Kevin passed through the archway first, followed by Bob and then Zuse. As soon as their host crossed the threshold, the empty space within the arch became solid wall again. They had entered an office—Kevin presumed it belonged to Zuse—with inwardly sloping walls of polished onyx. One section was made entirely out of plate glass. Beyond and below the glass was the roiling electron cloud that separated the sea and city below from the golden-glowing heavens above.

Zuse sat down behind a wide desk made from the same onyx material as the rest of the room. "Please, gentlemen, sit," he said. Two leather wing chairs and a mahogany table appeared at the administrator's suggestion. Kevin felt he should have been prepared for such feats of prestidigitation, but it was still startling to witness furniture spontaneously form out of thin air. Both he and Bob sat in the comfortable, high-backed chairs facing the enigmatic Zuse Conrad. "Now, to business," he said, leaning forward. "You wish to utilize the system to run an algorithm whose purpose is to yield the optimal waveform necessary to permanently disable every RAMM device in the multiverse. Am I correct?"

"Okay, timeout," Bob said, making a T-sign with his hands. "How do you already know all this? You act like we've been here before."

"Indeed," Zuse said. "Has the Creator not explained the nature of our system?"

Bob turned to Kevin and shrugged, as if an explanation should've been forthcoming.

"He said before that this was our first time meeting him, but it wasn't his first time meeting us," Kevin said. "This is a quantum system, which means the chain of cause and effect can be reversed. It means things can be in many different states and locations simultaneously." He looked at Zuse with a wild-eyed expression and pointed. "You're in a superposition."

Zuse smiled and nodded once. "The Creator is wise," he said reverently.

"What does that mean?" Bob asked.

"It means Zuse is conscious of everything that's happening in every universe in which he exists," Kevin said. "He's having this exact same conversation in a multitude of parallel realities. He's aware of all of them, and time isn't simultaneous across the multiverse. In some of those realities, we've already been here, so he already knows what we're going to say and do."

"I know what you're _likely_ to say and do," clarified Zuse. "We're dealing with probabilities, after all."

"Then we can skip to the real question," Bob said. "Can you help us?"

Zuse spread his hands. "Maybe. We will certainly attempt to help you, but success is largely a matter of—how can I put this?— _blind luck_. And by 'luck' I mean the luck of being in the right universe. There is a 40% chance we will correctly compute the waveform, but there is also a 70% chance we will crash the system doing so."

"What are the odds of successfully computing the waveform _without_ crashing the system?" asked Kevin.

"Less than 10% I'm afraid," Zuse replied.

"Is there any way we can improve those odds?" asked Bob.

"I'm afraid not," Zuse said. "We're limited by the functionality of the system, and there's no way to know if we inhabit one of the successful universes until after we make an attempt."

Kevin pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned on the arm of his chair. "Less than a 10% chance of being in the universe where everything goes just right," he said.

"Kevin," Bob said, "it's too risky. Even if we get what we need, you'll be stranded in cyberspace."

Kevin shook his head. "This has to be done," he said. "Mainframe's safety comes first."

"I agree," Bob said, "but there has to be another way."

Abruptly, Zuse rose up and crossed the office to the arch.

"Zuse, where are you going?" Bob asked.

"You and Dr. Sawyer are about to have a very emotional conversation, and it usually goes much more smoothly if I'm not here," Zuse explained.

"I'm not emotional," Kevin said.

"You have buried the hatchet with your dying father, Creator, and you feel as if there is nothing left for you to accomplish in your world," Zuse said. "I'd say you're quite emotional, but who am I to judge such things?" The wall within the archway dissolved, revealing another room, one different from the hangar bay, on the other side. "I will return shortly. Oh, and before I forget. Happy belated birthday."

Zuse stepped through the arch with a wave and the wall solidified behind him.

The room lapsed into silence. Kevin felt both embarrassed and struck dumb by Zuse's blunt diagnosis of his mental state, and he suspected the inscrutable sprite had spilled the beans on purpose in order to jump start the conversation he was supposed to have with Bob.

"Your father's dying?" Bob asked.

Kevin felt himself shrink into the leather chair. The last thing he wanted to talk about was his father.

"Is what Zuse said true?" Bob prodded.

Kevin answered, "It's complicated."

Bob crossed his arms and moved to sit on the edge of Zuse's desk, facing Kevin. "I don't think he's coming back until we've had this talk we supposed to have."

Kevin huffed a sigh of frustration. "Before coming back to Mainframe, I went to visit my parents for the first time in… _years_. We hadn't been on speaking terms because of what happened to my brother, Kyle. I never told you about my brother."

Bob shook his head and waited patiently.

"My family has a pretty long history of military service," Kevin began. "The last four generations have all served as fighter pilots, starting with my great-grandfather in World War II. Before that, there was at least one Sawyer directly related to me that fought in one war or another. I was the first to break with tradition. That caused a lot of tension between my father and me, but it was okay because he had Kyle, my older brother."

"He followed in your family's footsteps," Bob said.

Kevin nodded. "He was the legacy," he said. "Top of his class at the Air Force Academy, and he got a pilot's slot right after graduation." Kevin smiled, but it was a sad, remorseful expression that lacked the typical warmth Bob had come to associate with the human. "It was like he had a rocket strapped to his back," Kevin whispered.

"You sound like you really admired your brother," Bob said.

"I looked at Kyle the way Enzo looks at you," Kevin said. "He was my hero." Kevin turned his eyes downward, a faraway expression on his face.

"What happened?" Bob asked.

"I got accepted to Princeton when I was sixteen," he said. "That summer, I was packing my bags and getting ready to kiss my parents goodbye. A month before the fall semester starts, we get a visitor. One of Kyle's squadmates shows up in his dress blues all steel-faced and stiff as a board. We all know why he's there. Kyle was killed in a training accident. Total engine failure on his Raptor. He'd had his wings for less than a year. My brother…the one strapped to the rocket…just gone. What was left of his body wasn't fit for an open casket. I guess up until then, tragedy was something that happened to other people. It was a rude awakening." Kevin rubbed his forehead and steeled himself before continuing. "I stopped speaking to my father after that."

"Why?" Bob asked. "Because he encouraged your brother to follow the family tradition?"

"Exactly," said Kevin. "Don't judge me too harshly, Bob. I was a child. I knew it wasn't his fault up here." He tapped his index finger against his temple. "But _down here_ …" He pointed at his chest. "…I needed to assign blame. There had to be a reason for the tragedy because if there was a reason then it could've been prevented. Maybe if Kyle had been more like me, maybe if he'd gone his own way instead of following the path my father had laid out for him, maybe he would've lived. And that's why I stopped speaking to my father for thirteen years."

Again, Kevin fell quiet, his face an expressionless stone mask. Bob could only imagine the storm of emotions brewing within him, but he kept encouraging the cybernaut to unburden himself. "What about your mom?" he asked.

"My mother was the wife of an American fighter pilot," he said. "She knew the risks that went with the job, and she bore the news just as stoically as my father did. I guess I confused their strength with a lack of emotion, and I began to resent them both; although, I think I resented her a little less than him. She's the one who called me. After I went home the last time. I was beat up and bruised, and she called me to wish me a happy birthday."

"That's how you found out about your dad," Bob reasoned.

"Cancer," Kevin said. "You don't know about it. It's a disease that affects humans. It can be pretty serious, or, in my father's case, terminal. My mother begged me to come see him, and I'm ashamed to say I almost refused."

"Why?" Bob asked.

"Because I had done everything to distance myself from my family," Kevin said. "I burned bridges, man. I never introduced them to Jessica. I'm not sure they would've known we even got married if she hadn't sent them a letter telling them. They only found out she'd died because of in-laws that they'd never met. How do you even start to fix something so broken?"

"You resented your parents that much?" Bob asked. It was an unbelievable thought for the Guardian.

"Only in the beginning," Kevin said. "After a few years, I just thought our relationship was unfixable, and so I didn't even try. I was wrong, though."

"You patched things up," said Bob.

Kevin's face contorted into an expression of anguish, and tears burned rivers down his flaming cheeks. "If I'd known how easy it was, I would've done it years ago. I keep thinking of all the time I squandered. Five minutes would've been more than enough."

"Does he know?" Bob asked. "About what you've been doing."

Kevin shook his head. "I didn't tell him everything, but I told him enough. I think he filled in the blanks. My old man's sharp, and I am his son."

"I'm sure he's proud of you," Bob said. "Any father would be. So if things between you and your family are better now, why are you so gung ho about potentially destroying the Alpha-9?"

Kevin looked up and met Bob's eyes. "I'm a soldier's son. I may not wear a uniform, but it's in my blood. It's how I was raised. That's why I'm going through with the plan. Because it's what a soldier would do. It's what my dad would do." He rose from his chair, keeping his eyes locked with Bob's. "It's what my brother would do."

"And the part about you having nothing left to accomplish?" Bob asked.

Kevin gave Bob a one-sided smile. "I learned how to cross time and space and discovered a parallel cyberverse. I built the most sophisticated computer in history, which we're now standing in. What more is there for a man to do? If protecting Mainframe and helping overthrow Megabyte is the next step, I'm up for it. And if it requires a sacrifice on my part, well, so be it."

Bob nodded. "Okay."

Kevin cocked an eyebrow. "As in: we're okay?"

"Yeah," Bob said. "If you're really willing to do this for us, I won't try and talk you out of it."

Like clockwork, Zuse reentered the room through the archway. "Are we ready, gentlemen?"

Kevin read Bob's face and saw that he would get no further resistance from the Guardian. "Let's do it," he said.


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11 – One Soul, Many Fates**

They returned to the hangar where they climbed into the hovercar once again.

"Where are we going, now?" Bob asked.

"To the Twister Field," Zuse announced. "We need to allocate some space to format a new sector."

Automatically, as if overhearing Zuse's reply, the hovercar lifted off and soared through the open door of the hangar bay. It dove down into the Electron Cloud, seeming to dive much faster than it had ascended, and when the mists parted, Kevin was nearly blinded by the light emanating from the awesome, cyclopean city below. It was unlike anything either Bob or Kevin had ever seen. By comparison, the city on The Bay was scaled back and subdued by comparison. For miles in all directions were skyscraping towers of multifaceted beauty and gargantuan height, glowing with such heavenly radiance that the dull Electron Cloud above reflected its golden hue. The hovercar leveled off and they continued over the gilded, crystalline megapolis, its beautiful buildings and thriving thoroughfares bearing silent testimony to the genius of its Creator.

"Behold," Zuse said, "Centra. The heart of the system."

 _I'm going to destroy all this_ , Kevin thought. The realization struck him suddenly, like a sucker punch flying out of a dark corner. _This incredible thing that I've created. I'm about to kill it. Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds._ Then he heard his father's voice speaking from that same dark corner from which the sucker punch came:

 _Sometimes the only options you have are bad ones. Whenever that happens, there will be a temptation to only commit half-way, and that's always fatal. Choose the least bad path, commit fully, and if some good comes from that act, let it give you strength to withstand the consequences._

"So be it," Kevin whispered to himself.

Soon, the city fell away and they were flying over a great expanse of flat land. The hovercar came to a gentle landing, and its passengers stepped out. Centra was still visible off in the distance, but they were sufficiently far away that only the vaguest outlines of its monolithic towers could be seen with the naked eye.

Before them stretched a limitless expanse of flat, darkly reflective surface. To Kevin's eyes, it looked like the same glassy material the pebbles in the bay had been made of. The sound of thunder shook the ground, and Kevin felt powerful vibrations work their way up his legs and into his chest. A long, thin, spinning funnel like a twister tornado dropped out of the Electron Cloud and touched down within ten feet of the cybernaut. In nearly the same instant, the twister evaporated, its funnel vanishing into thin air only to be replaced by another twister further away. The entire plane, for as far as Kevin could see, was filled with appearing and disappearing twisters.

"What is this place?" asked Bob.

"The entire Alpha-9 system emerges out of the Twister Field," said Zuse. "Just as your world emerges from a sea of digital information, ours arises from the physics of these objects."

Zuse stretched forth his hand, and his eyes began to glow with white fire. A multitude of twisters descended to the ground, merging together to form a gigantic spinning funnel. Thunder rolled and the winds howled, but the three travelers hardly felt anything more forceful than a gentle breeze. The tornado expanded, its edges engulfing them. Kevin and Bob threw their arms up over their faces, but the spinning cloud evaporated around them harmlessly. Where before there had been an empty plane filled with twisters, now they were in the middle of a new shining city. They stood in the courtyard surrounding a large, geodesic dome. The black, glassy ground had been replaced with concrete paths intersecting lush gardens with thriving trees and glowing green grass.

"Where did all this come from?" Kevin asked.

"It was always here, Creator," Zuse said. "You just could not perceive it until we reached this point in the space-time continuum."

Knowing they would get no better explanation from their guide, Bob and Kevin followed Zuse up a concrete path and through a pair of transparent sliding doors that served as an entrance to the geodesic dome. There were no walls within the dome; the entire structure enclosed a single, circular room. In the center was a floating holographic projection twenty feet across consisting of blocks of green, yellow, and red blocks of various sizes. To Kevin it looked like a disassembled 3D puzzle.

"This is your algorithm, Creator," Zuse announced. "To further clarify what you are seeing, this building represents the program written by Tom Keller and Vivian Thompson to run it. If successful, the pieces of the hologram will assemble themselves into a geometric shape that encodes the proper waveform. If it fails…"

"We'll all be deleted when the system crashes," Bob finished.

Zuse gave a single, solemn nod. "There is no need for you to remain, Guardian Bob. I can send you back to Mainframe if you wish. Only Dr. Sawyer need remain."

"What happens to Kevin if this doesn't work?" Bob asked.

"There will be a brief window where I will be able to transport him to safety," Zuse said. "I'm pleased to say that I am successful in 99.8% of cases. The odds of transporting you both back to Mainframe in the event of failure are only marginally smaller."

"Then I'll hang around," Bob said.

"As you wish," said Zuse. The system administrator then turned to Kevin. "The system is ready to begin the computation, Creator."

Kevin had been unconsciously fingering the circular face of his retrieval module while gazing up at the hologram. At the mention of his title, he dropped his hands to his sides.

"You should probably head back to Mainframe," he said to Bob. "It'll be safer."

"Mainframers stick together," the Guardian said.

Kevin gave Bob a weak smile and then said, "Begin."

His voice echoed ominously within the dome. Their surroundings visibly darkened, as if a cloud had strayed in front of the sun, but instead of reaching a limit, the darkness continued to encroach upon them until the hologram became the only source of visible light. The dome and the system outside seemed to disappear, consumed by an infinite void, and Kevin felt his pulse quicken.

Had the Alpha-9 ceased to exist upon his very order to begin the computation? His vision was limited. The glow of the hologram was hopelessly insufficient to pierce the gloom that had consumed him and his companions. Then, as if from far away, Kevin heard a sound growing in intensity. It was a mechanical whining, like a huge hidden engine spinning up to greater and greater power.

Light suddenly exploded within the dome, a blinding flash that must've been a Trinity or a Hiroshima by comparison. Kevin was sure he'd been blinded, but he made no motion to cover his eyes. He could only stand and stare in awe at the vast expanse of… _everything!_

The puzzle pieces of the hologram began to fit themselves together, rotating and spinning and assembling into a vague semblance of order, but Kevin was only briefly aware of it. His attention had been fractured, it seemed, into an infinitude of independent parts. He was aware of being inside the dome, facing the hologram, but he was also aware of being _elsewhere_.

He was in Mainframe's besieged Principal Office, holding Dot in his arms as they watched the mechanics install the last RDE onto the timeship.

He was in in the OmniCron board room, Tom at his side, explaining to the DARPA committee and Senator Dupree why they needed more funding to continue their research.

He was in New York City, on the run from a killer android with a beautiful woman by his side.

He was exploring the bowels of a derelict warship that belonged to another era, and he was about to turn a corner and meet himself.

"What is this?!" It was a scream for help, a cry for relief. _"I can't be all of them. I CAN'T BE ALL OF THEM!"_

Kevin felt himself spread like too little butter over too much bread. Except he wasn't just Kevin Sawyer anymore. He saw himself as in a house of mirrors, with each mirror showing him a distinct reflection and each image had its own name: Kevin Sawyer, Warren Hendrix, Henry Kelvin, Dash Reid, and hundreds… _millions_ of others.

"What if we're all somebody else fiction?" Henry Kelvin asked himself.

"No!" shouted Kevin Sawyer. "I know what's real! _I know I'm real!_ "

Bob was faring no better. His own place in the Multiverse of universes was being laid bare in much the same fashion.

He was the Prime Guardian of the Supercomputer and still merged with Glitch. It was his daughter's wedding day, and Adena was marrying _a pirate_ no less!

He had just deleted Megabyte, and Enzo was pleading with Gnosis to restore all the decompiled Sprites.

He was on a zip-board, hovering in the skies of Mainframe, warning a pair of intruders that the system was under his protection.

He was a Mob Boss in Central City, a warlord trafficking in mutants, Jonny Quest's adopted brother…

The Guardian tried to close his eyes and concentrate on what he knew for certain was true: he was Guardian 452, Bob, defender of Mainframe. But the images still assaulted him, a menagerie of lives, all his, and all being lived.

"I come from the Net…through systems, peoples and cities…"

The final piece of the waveform slid into its proper place and the hologram became solid, the colors merging into a uniform shade of violet.

A voice, distinct from Kevin and Bob called out, "It is complete!"

And everything came to a crashing halt. Kevin felt himself being jerked back, like he had reached the limit of an elastic lifeline. His awareness shrank from an ocean to a teardrop, and he was back. He was Kevin Sawyer, definite and real!

The wall of the geodesic dome reappeared, solid and vividly alight. The holographic image had been replaced with a solid object, suspended in midair, waiting to be claimed like a priceless treasure. But no one made any attempt to take it.

"Bob," Kevin said finally, "are you okay?"

"No," Bob responded. "Are you?"

"Not really," Kevin said. He turned stiffly to face his companion. "Did you…see anything?"

"I saw a lot," Bob said. "Just don't ask me what it all meant."

"You have seen the universe disrobed," Zuse said. The system administrator stood statue-like before them. "You have peered into Eternity and seen the true nature of Reality. Everything is real. Everything that can happen will happen somewhere, sometime."

"So…in some other universe…I'm _not_ me?" Bob asked. "I'm someone else?"

"I'm Kevin Sawyer _here_ ," Kevin said. "But somewhere else I'm Henry Kelvin. And somewhere else I'm Dashiell Reid."

"You must remember that here is what matters," Zuse said, "or you will lose yourselves."

"Then why show us all that?" Bob asked. "Why show me a daughter I may never have? Why show either of us lives that we'll never live?"

"Because the truth, while strange and uncomfortable, must be known," Zuse said. He turned and grabbed the waveform, bringing it to Bob.

The waveform was a dodecahedron, seemingly cut from solid amethyst. Zuse held it in his hands then he turned the waveform ninety-degrees so that it sat in the palm of his right hand. Kevin and Bob watched how the dodecahedron became a three-sided pyramid as it turned. Zuse turned the pyramid 180-degrees so that it sat in his left palm, and the waveform became a truncated cube made of six octagons and eight triangles. He held it up and Kevin and Bob gazed into its violet depths. They could just make out a lattice structure within the crystal.

"The lattice never changes," Zuse explained, "yet it produces different three-dimensional shapes as you turn it."

He handed it to Bob. "Now you must return to Mainframe."

Stunned, Kevin asked, "What about the Alpha-9?"

Zuse led them outside the dome into the open. Above, the Electron Cloud flickered and pulsed with energy, and off in the distance, Kevin could see the outlines of Centra.

"We didn't crash the system!" Kevin said.

"No," Zuse said.

"That's great!" exclaimed Bob.

Zuse remained silent, impassive.

"Zuse," Kevin said, "what's wrong? I'd think you'd be relieved."

"I am relieved," Zuse said, "but since the system did not crash, and we successfully computed the waveform, intervention on my part is necessary."

"Intervention?" asked Kevin. "What do you mean?"

Zuse waved his hand and a portal appeared leading back to Mainframe. "Guardian, you must return to Mainframe. What must be said between myself and my Creator is for us alone."

Bob looked from Zuse to Kevin, confused. He shrugged his shoulders, silently asking, _What should I do?_

"Go ahead, Bob," Kevin said. "I'll catch up."

The Guardian nodded, and, cradling the waveform in his arms like a precious babe, stepped through the portal.

"You didn't see it, did you?" Zuse asked after the portal closed.

"See what?"

"The Tower."

Kevin thought back to his experience within the dome. It was all a blur, a mixed jumble of memories from other lives. He could recall a great deal; although, the memories were dreamlike in texture, and he felt them fading fast.

"I don't remember a tower," Kevin replied.

For the first time since meeting him, Kevin saw worry on Zuse's face. The expression was alien, like a cruel grimace on the face of Abraham Lincoln. "In most cases," he began, "the Alpha-9 crashes, regardless of whether the algorithm succeeds or fails. And when it does, you go to the Tower."

"I don't understand," Kevin said. "What tower?"

"Come with me, and I'll show you," said Zuse.

They climbed back into the hovercar and they ascended quickly, as if the vehicle knew instinctively that its pilot was in a hurry. Centra passed beneath them in a blur, and soon they were flying over the empty sea. It was hard for Kevin to say how far they traveled because he couldn't judge their speed, but when the hovercar landed on a barren island, he saw no sign of a coast. The island itself was a narrow strip of land and covered with familiar solid black ingots. Zuse stood next to the water's edge and pointed towards the invisible horizon.

"There," he said simply.

Kevin looked and, at first, couldn't discern anything specific. But as his eyes adjusted, he did begin to see something peculiar in the distance. It was like a lighthouse, glowing brilliantly, except it was shaped like a slab with a sharp edge pointed in the direction of the island. The vision of it filled Kevin with awe; although, he could not understand why.

"What is that?" he asked.

"I don't know," Zuse said. "I have tried to reach it, as have many others, but we are forever separated."

"What does that mean?"

"At some point—it varies for each person—the distance between the tower and the one traveling towards it remains fixed. We can only ever get so close. No matter how far we travel, the Tower always remains ahead of us. Except for you, Creator."

Kevin turned his gaze on Zuse. "Me?"

"I see realities where you are there, standing at the foot of the Tower, and you are being…welcomed inside its walls. I believe it waits for you."

Kevin stared across the sea at the Tower and felt a sudden and inexplicable compulsion to run towards it. He couldn't understand why but he had to reach the Tower. He _had_ to! It was imperative!

"Why?" he whispered. He had been speaking more to himself, in an effort to answer his own questions, but Zuse answered.

"I don't know," Zuse said. "My knowledge has limits, Creator, and I cannot see beyond the Tower. It is always there. It has always been there. If it is not the beginning of all things, it is certainly the end."

And suddenly Kevin was back in the laboratory he shared with Welman Matrix. The words of his Mainframe-Prime double took on a new and tremendous weight. "I came to warn you," Sawyer had said. "Every universe in your neighborhood is on a convergent trajectory."

 _If it is not the beginning of all things, it is certainly the end._

"How do I get to the Tower?" Kevin asked.

"Getting to the Tower is not the issue," Zuse explained. "It is when you get there that is important. Things are happening very quickly in this reality, much faster than in any other universe. You have yet to battle Infector, nor have you faced the Nanoid menace. Whether these things shall come to pass now that you have discovered the RAMM, I cannot say, but I do know one thing for certain. You must help defeat Meagbyte from Mainframe-Two. Left unchallenged, he will launch a campaign to destroy this universe's Mainframe, and that will only be a stepping stone to far greater horrors."

Listening, Kevin pushed aside his irrational desire to seek out the Tower, remembering that he already had a job to finish. "I understand," he said.

"I cannot say much more, Creator," Zuse said. "Forces are at work, I believe, conspiring to lead you to the Tower, but timing is everything. Reach the Tower too soon or too late, and the result will be disastrous."

"So I shouldn't try getting to it on my own?" Kevin asked.

"The path of Kevin Sawyer ends at the Tower," said Zuse. "I suspect you will get there whether you seek it out or not."

"And what about the _others_?" Kevin asked. "My others? Henry Kelvin…Dash Reid…"

Zuse pursed his lips for a moment, weighing his words carefully, and then said, "One soul. Many fates."

And then he was standing in the Mainframe Core Control Chamber with Bob.

"Hey!" he said. "Did you decide to come through with me?"

"What?" Kevin said, looking around. "What just happened?"

"I walked through the portal," Bob said, holding the waveform. "I thought you were staying to talk with Zuse."

"I did," Kevin said. "It's been a least a millisecond since I saw you, Bob."

"I just got here," the Guardian replied with a furrowed brow.

As if to prove his point, the Gate Command shut down, the portal to the Alpha-9 system vanishing.

"Are you all right?" Bob asked Kevin.

"Zuse," Kevin said slowly, "he showed me something."

"What?" asked Bob.

Kevin didn't know what he was going to say until the words were already past his lips. Even to his own ears, they sounded cryptic and insufficient, but perhaps it was the best he could do.

"The end of the line."


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12 – The Universal Nullifier**

Hexadecimal emerged out of the Universe and took a bow. "What did you think of my performance?"

As she rose, she shed the disguise of Zuse Conrad and became herself again. Pythias offered a solid round of applause.

"Brava, madam! Brava!" exclaimed Pythias. "I tip my hat to you."

Hexadecimal smiled. "I hope your good humor is genuine. Have we made progress?"

"Probability differentials are dropping," Pythias said. "Timeline branching has ceased…and the wave amplitude of the Primeline is increasing."

Hexadecimal breathed a sigh of relief as she looked into the Universe herself. "Rocks and things and butterfly's wings," she rhymed under her breath. "It seems we've managed to stabilize the primary timeline."

"For the time being," Pythias said. "What happens if Dr. Sawyer returns to the Alpha-9 and tries to find Zuse Conrad?"

"He won't risk returning to his precious system," Hexadecimal said, "not after he got so lucky. Despite its beauty and sophistication, Alpha-9 is very unstable, and Sawyer knows it. Besides, he'll have bigger issues to deal with very soon."

"You may be more right than you know, Hex," Pythias said.

Frustrated, Hexadecimal growled, "This is no time to be cryptic."

"Our decision to interfere was justified," Pythias said, "but we've shifted things around a little. The Nanoid Invasion will now take place in another universe."

"So I see," Hexadecimal said, frowning at the new shape of things. "But our Dr. Sawyer is still involved somehow, and so is… _who is that?_ "

Pythias looked at the point Hex was scrutinizing, a crossover of world-lines involving Kevin Sawyer and another cybernaut.

"I didn't take you seriously before when you said we were dealing with chaos," Pythias said, "but I believe you were right to be worried about direct interference on our part."

"It can't be…"

"It is," Pythias said.

Hexadecimal shook her head in denial. "This wasn't supposed to happen. Kevin was never supposed to meet _her_ , not in any universe!"

Pythias looked into the vast emptiness beyond the Universe towards the solitary tower. "It's like you said, Hex," Pythias said. "Higher forces are at work."

* * *

Enzo stared through the firewall of his cell at the sullen form of his Mainframe-Two counterpart, who was cooling his heels in a cell of his own directly across the walkway. The epic battle between good and evil had been short lived, someone having called the CPUs to break up the fight. As if to add insult to injury (and there was plenty of injury) the CPUs had arrested both Enzo-One and Enzo-Two for disorderly conduct, hauling their bitmaps to Quarantine in cuffs.

Enzo had never felt so humiliated…so frustrated… _so cheated!_ He'd had Enzo-Two! He was finished! Another few nanoseconds and Enzo would've worn him down enough to step in and deliver the final blow. Enzo had watched in satisfaction as his enemy's persistent smug smile slowly faded, replaced with a frown and panicked eyes. Enzo-Two knew he was finished. Then the cops showed up and ruined everything.

The CPUs had spared them the indignity of making them pose for mug shots, but being handcuffed and shoved into the back of a patrol car with Enzo-Two, all while the patrons of Dot's Diner gawked at the unfolding drama, was humiliating beyond words.

The door to Quarantine Section opened and Dot stepped into view. She stood in the walkway between then cells, arms crossed, her lips curved down in a nasty frown.

"Fighting in public?" she said, her voice like cold steel. "I expected better from you."

Before Enzo could utter a defense, she turned around and blasted Enzo-Two.

"And you," she said. "Maybe your kind of behavior is acceptable in your version of Mainframe, but it won't be tolerated _here._ "

"Maybe you should tell that to him," Enzo-Two said, pointing at Enzo-One. "He started it."

Dot whipped around. "Is that true?"

Enzo opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Realizing he had no good defense, he kept silent.

"I see," Dot said. She stepped closer to the firewall, eyeing her brother warily. "What's gotten into you, Enzo?"

"He attacked me, tried to kidnap me, threatened us all with a logic bomb, and you think there's something wrong with _me!?_ Why is he even still here? We should've shipped him back to Megaframe by now."

"The situation's changed," Dot said. "If you'd cool your jets for longer than a nanosecond, you might process that."

"I still see a viral wearing my face," Enzo spat. "From where I'm standing, nothing's changed."

Dot pinched the bridge of her nose and then took a deep breath. "We've agreed to help Enzo-Two remove the logic bomb. That means mounting some kind of assault on Megaframe. But before that happens, you two are going to stay in here until you reach some kind of understanding because I need everyone working together to pull this off."

Dot marched out of Quarantine, the heavy vault door heaving shut behind her with a metallic _bang._

* * *

Welman and Matrix were waiting for Dot outside the Quarantine Section. The command-dot-com sighed in frustration, and Welman placed a comforting hand against his daughter's elbow.

"How is he?" Welman asked.

"He's fine, just…angry."

"He's a teenager," Matrix said. "He's always angry."

"He's angry at himself," Dot said. "At Enzo-Two. Kevin was right. Coming face-to-face with a part of yourself you don't like: it's a slap in the face."

"And your solution is to keep them locked up in Quarantine?" Welman asked. "Is that wise?"

"I'm not sure it's wise," Dot admitted. "But it is necessary. Those two need to accept one another. They need to acknowledge that each is Enzo Matrix, despite their differences."

"Easier said than done," Matrix mumbled.

A vidwindow appeared in the hallway with a video feed from AndrAIa in the War Room. "Hey, Bob and Kevin are back. And they brought a souvenir from their trip."

"That's great news, AndrAIa!" Dot exclaimed.

"They're on their way to Hugh Branch's lab," AndrAIa said.

"We'll meet them there," Dot said. The vidwindow closed, and Dot looked over her shoulder at the door to Quarantine. "We need to move quickly," she said. "We've got our weapon. Now we need a plan."

At that, Matrix said, "I'm already way ahead of you, sis."

* * *

The elevator doors opened with a hiss, and Bob led Kevin into a long room with a high factory ceiling, concrete floors, and hanging overhead lights. The floor was partitioned into workspaces where teams of binomes busied themselves testing various weapons, vehicles, and equipment. Kevin watched with fascination as a one binome stepped behind what appeared to be a sheet of dark-tinted glass but was in actuality some kind of x-ray imaging device. The binome became a moving wire-frame skeleton as it walked behind the glass pane, but what really caught Kevin's attention was the red outline of a pistol, which was apparently hidden under the binome's lab coat. The lab technician emerged on the opposite side of the glass where another lab tech lifted his coat and took the dummy pistol. A third binome, a round zero binome, marked something off on a clipboard with a gratified smile.

 _I feel like I'm in a Bond movie,_ thought Kevin. _It's just like Q's workshop._

"Ah, Guardian Bob," came a distinctly British accent. "Welcome back to the Workshop."

"Thanks, Hugh," Bob replied. The Guardian introduced Kevin to the one-binome standing before them. "Kevin, this is Hugh Branch. He runs the Principal Office's Tech Division."

"Oh, yes," Hugh said, sizing up the cybernaut, "I remember hearing about you. You're that viral specialist from the Supercomputer, eh?"

It took Kevin a nano to remember that he was supposed to be posing as a consultant from the Supercomputer. It had been so long since someone had questioned him about his presence in Mainframe that he had almost forgotten about his cover story.

"Yep, that's me," Kevin said. "Nice facility you've got here. Very high-tech."

"I doubt it compares with what you Supercomputer chaps have," Hugh replied, "but we _are_ proud of our little operation."

 _He even looks and talks like Q_ , he thought. Hugh's clothing skin consisted of a tweed three-piece suit and a red-and-blue striped tie. The binome even had his white hair slicked and combed to the side in the old-fashioned gentleman's style.

"I take it that's what we've all been waiting for?" Hugh asked, pointing at the waveform Bob was carrying.

"You got it," Bob said. "Is the hardware ready?"

"Shipshape and Bristol fashion, Guardian," Hugh replied. "This way, if you please, gentlemen. And do try _not_ to touch anything."

They followed Hugh Branch further into the workshop, passing several interesting projects that caught Kevin's eye, until they came upon a safety rail barring the edge of a pit. Bob, Hugh, and Kevin gazed down at the enormous contraption that had been assembled on the floor below. It was composed of two parts. The lower half of the mechanism was ensconced in concrete and metal scaffolding. The upper part of the structure resembled the chrome-plated barrels of a shotgun stacked one atop the other, with the top cylinder slightly longer than the bottom. An array of antennas of varying lengths stuck out of the lower cylinder while the top cylinder remained an open hole at the end. The barrels were pointed up at the ceiling at a thirty-degree angle to the floor and met at a bulbous chamber mounted to the base.

"I give you the Universal Nullifier, gentlemen," said Hugh.

"Very impressive," Bob said. "Will it work?"

At this question, Hugh seemed abashed. "Ah, well, that's the rub, you see," he said. "It _should_ work, that is, if the waveform pattern is correct."

"Then we should be okay," Kevin said. "I doubt Zuse would've given us a dud without saying so."

From behind, Kevin heard a female voice call out, "Hey, boys."

They turned and saw Dot walking towards them with Matrix and Welman at her side.

"How'd it go?" Welman asked.

"We managed to get the gizpod without crashing the system," Bob said.

"That's great," Dot said. "Best news I've heard all second."

"The only downside is that we can't test it," Kevin said. "If it works, we'll disable all the RAMM devices in the Multiverse simultaneously, including our own. If we're going to help Enzo-Two, we have to do that first."

"We've already got a plan in the works," Dot said. "But before we discuss that, I want the weapon primed and ready to use."

"Then I suggest everyone step forward, please," Hugh said, waving them forward.

They stepped into a square area marked with yellow and black diagonal stripes. Peeking over the guardrail, Kevin noted that they were standing on a concrete platform mounted to a hydraulic lift. With the push of a button, the striped area began to descend into the pit. Once at the bottom, Hugh guided Bob and the others to the round chamber that apparently served as a receptacle for the waveform.

"If you'd be so kind, Guardian," Hugh said.

Bob handed the waveform to a zero binome. "Be careful. It changes shape depending on which way you turn it."

The binome held the waveform in a steady grip with both hands. A one binome, having mounted a small ladder, opened the receptacle chamber and took the waveform from the zero binome. It took only a few nanoseconds to secure the waveform inside the chamber. It seemed to be contained within a stasis field of some kind, floating freely between two glowing plates. The lab tech closed the chamber and locked the hatch then gave Hugh a thumbs-up.

A vidwindow appeared at Dot's waist level, a red button on its screen.

"The weapon is primed, Commander Matrix," Hugh announced.

"Good work, everybody," Dot said. "I wish I could tell you the hard part was over, but I'd be lying."

"Then we are going to help Enzo-Two?" Kevin asked.

"After disinfecting him, I think we're obligated to help," Welman said.

"Before we do this," Dot said, "we need to decide right now much we're committed. Let's say we get Megabyte to remove the logic bomb _somehow_ , and we help Enzo-Two depose him. That still leaves a viral army deal with."

"What if we could get Megabyte's army to stand down," Bob asked, "to surrender without a fight?"

"That'd solve half our problems," Matrix said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest, "but the virals are fanatics. Only Megabyte could order them to surrender."

"Exactly," said Bob.

"What are you proposing, Bob?" asked Dot.

"We've got a cure for viral infection," Bob said. "Let's use it."

"Free the viral troops from Megabyte's infection!" exclaimed Welman. "That's brilliant!"

"But it's impractical," Matrix said. "We'd have to give the cure to every viral in Mainframe."

"That's not what I meant," Bob said. "I want to give the cure to Megabyte."

Silence. Then…

"Wait," Kevin said, " _what?_ "

"Bob, this isn't the time to test one of your theories," Dot said.

"Just hear me out," Bob said. "If it cured Enzo-Two, it could work on Megabyte."

"Megabyte isn't patient zero," Kevin interjected. "He _is_ the virus. The cure could be fatal to him, or it might do nothing."

"All I'm asking is that we try," Bob said. "If it doesn't work, then we'll go with Plan B."

"Is 'Plan B' a euphemism for deletion?" asked Matrix.

"You want me to say it out loud, Matrix?" Bob asked. "Fine. We'll delete Megabyte."

"I thought you were against deletion," said Kevin.

"I am," Bob replied. "But if we can save the city without starting a war by deleting one virus…" Bob shrugged his shoulders, frowning. "Sometimes the ugly math just adds up."

 _He doesn't believe what he's saying_ , Kevin thought. _Maybe he knows it's true, but he doesn't want to believe it's true._

"Alright," Dot said, "we'll try the cure on Megabyte. If it doesn't work, we'll give it to Enzo-Two, and he can decide what to do with it. But one way or another, we need to take Megabyte down."

"I've just got one question," Kevin said. "How are we going to get close enough to Megabyte to give him the cure?"

"Actually," Dot said, "we may already have a plan for that part…"


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13 – The Prisoner's Dilemma**

Enzo-One paced the length of his cell like a restless animal, his eyes downcast. What was Dot thinking locking _him_ up in Quarantine with his evil twin? _He_ wasn't the viral traitor. _He_ didn't come to Mainframe trying to kidnap innocent people.

"First time in jail?" Enzo-Two asked.

Enzo-One ignored his counterpart and continued along his circuit.

"Goody two-shoes like you…must be your first time in jail," Enzo-Two pressed.

Enzo-One shot his evil twin a milk-curdling glance but said nothing.

"You're going to have to talk to me eventually, y'know," his doppelganger continued. "Especially since we're allies now."

"We're _not_ allies," said Enzo-One. "No way in _Dell_."

"I get why you'd feel that way," Enzo-Two said. "I mean, I _am_ the one who came to your Mainframe, threatened you, kicked your ascii, tried to kidnap you, but I'm gonna need you to put on your big boy pants and move past all that, m'kay?"

"You're a piece of work, you know that?"

"I've been called worse," replied Enzo-Two. "Look, what do you want from me? An apology?"

"I don't think you're sorry," Enzo-One spat.

"You'd be wrong," Enzo-Two said. "I get it, you don't have any reason to trust me, and my word means nothing."

"So why should I trust you?" asked Enzo-One.

" _Because I don't want to die!_ " Enzo-Two shouted, his voice breaking with fear.

Enzo-One stopped in his tracks. It was so strange to hear that voice, his voice, cracking in such a familiar way, and for a nanosecond, Enzo felt pity for his counterpart.

"Answer me this," Enzo-One said, "why did you do it? Why did you go viral?"

Enzo-Two crossed his arms over his chest and huffed a sigh of frustration. "You've never known desperation, have you? To know what it's like to have your head in a noose and that any nano, the floor's going to drop out from under you."

"I would've fought!" Enzo-One cried.

"I had nothing to fight with!" Enzo-Two shot back. "Dot and Bob were gone. I was a little sprite, and I was all alone! Megabyte overran the system in a matter of cycles. Everything was rationed: food, medicine, shelter. Only Megabyte's most loyal got anything worth having, and if you didn't go viral, you got dead. That's the Mainframe I grew up in. When I converted, I hadn't eaten in seventeen seconds. My body had lost so much cohesion that I was fading out. Has that ever happened to you?"

Enzo-One shook his head slowly.

"It's easy to preach on a soapbox when you've never known a real empty stomach," Enzo-Two continued. "I did what I had to do to survive."

"You didn't just survive," Enzo-One said. "You _thrived!_ "

"I told you, only the most loyal got anything worth having," Enzo-Two said. "So, yeah, I compromised. I turned viral, and I took to it. I made myself the best hunter-killer in Megabyte's army, and I got all the perks that came with being the best. And guess what? I'm still here."

"How many people did you have to kill to be the best?" Enzo-One asked. "How many of our friends and neighbors did he send you to delete so you could prove your worth?"

"As many as it took," Enzo-Two replied, his voice steely and rigid.

"And you don't feel anything?" asked Enzo-One. "No guilt? No remorse?"

Enzo-Two bowed his head slightly, dropping his arms to his sides. "The virus made it easy. I never thought about how the killing was supposed to make me feel. I just did what he asked, and I did it gladly. I took pride in my work, but now…" He touched his icon, now white-and-black instead of viral green-and-black. "Part of me wants to go back to my Mainframe and let the logic bomb go off. All I can think of now is the way it used to be, the way it's _supposed_ to be. Like here. My Mainframe is so far gone, I can't really believe it's worth saving. But then, the truth is, I'm still afraid of death." He straightened up, squared his shoulders, and Enzo-One couldn't help but see some dignity in his villainous double. "So since I'm not ready to die, I might as well fight, but I can't do that unless I get this spammed logic bomb out of me, and to do that, I need your help."

Enzo-One was conflicted. Moved as he was by Enzo-Two's confession, something inside withheld true forgiveness; although, he was not as suspicious as he had been before. Then he heard Kevin's words echo up through the halls of memory:

 _Enzo, you're not a good person because you're different from your doppelganger. You're a good person because you're the same, but you try to be better. You're capable of being a villain, but you want to be the hero. That's what makes you good. That's what makes all of us good._

Since he had first encountered his Mainframe-Two counterpart, Enzo had been wrestling with the question of whether he was really a good person, when he obviously had it within him to embrace murder and death as a way of life. His counterpart was right. It was easy to say that he would never succumb to darkness, _to Megabyte_ , when he had a full stomach and friends and family, always nearby and ready with an encouraging " _attaboy_ " whenever he excelled. He saw Enzo-Two then in a new light. He saw his older brother without AndrAIa's love, without Bob's example or Dot's upbringing, without their father's renewed presence, and then he saw himself close behind.

If he had it within himself to be better, did his Mainframe-Two double not also have the same capacity? What would it take to bring out those qualities? Finally, a small, childlike voice within him asked:

 _If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?_

"Okay," said Enzo-One.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, _I'll help you_ ," Enzo-One clarified. "But I swear, if you do the dirty on us, I'll make sure that logic bomb goes off and takes you with it." He knew that he meant it, hearing the same steel in his voice as in his double's.

Enzo-Two grinned lopsidedly. "Square deal."

 _Yes,_ Enzo-One admitted to himself, _we are the same but different enough to distinguish between cold and warm-blooded. Maybe that's the answer. Without a little good to restrain it, evil would eviscerate itself. And without a little evil, the good would be crushed when push came to shove._

It was some time later that the door to Quarantine opened, and Matrix stepped inside the cell block.

"Are you two ready to play nice?" he asked.

"We've reached an understanding," Enzo-One said.

"Good," Matrix replied, "because we've got a plan, and it'll only work if you're willing to trust each other."

"Like he said," Enzo-Two said, "we've come to an understanding."

Matrix manipulated the firewall controls and the force-fields around their cells disappeared. "Follow me," he said. "I'll fill you in on the way to the War Room."


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14 – The Matrix Stratagem**

 _Mainframe-Two_

 _a.k.a. Megaframe_

The tall double doors at the entrance to the Great Hall banged open, startling Megabyte. At first, he was annoyed by the brazen intrusion into his personal domain, but then he saw his Hunter-Killer approach the throne with two prisoners in tow, and the virus relaxed.

Enzo Matrix knelt before the throne of Megabyte. His two captives, held in shackles, were forced to their knees by a pair of guards. The viral binomes gave each sprite a love tap behind the knees with their batons, and they sank, unwillingly, to the floor.

The virus smiled, pleased by the display.

"My lord," said Enzo Matrix, "I give you the two interlopers fool enough to violate the sovereign territory of Megaframe."

"You've done well, my boy," Megabyte said. "Your time grows short, and I was beginning to fear the worst."

"They put up a fight, my lord," Enzo Matrix said, "but in the end they were no match for one of your Hunter-Killers."

" _Indeed_ ," Megabyte said. "You have redeemed yourself in the eyes of your lord and master. Receive your reward."

Megabyte snapped his fingers, and Herr Doktor materialized out of a dark corner of the hall, an injector gun in hand. The mad scientist rolled up Enzo's sleeve and pressed the injector gun against the sprite's jade skin. He pulled the trigger, injecting the Hunter-Killer with a milky fluid. The counter on Enzo's forearm stopped, the numbers flickering. After a few nanoseconds, the subdermal timer disappeared.

"Zee logic bomb is neutralized," announced Herr Doktor.

"Excellent, Herr Doktor," Megabyte said. "Now, my Hunter-Killer… _rise_."

Enzo rose to his feet, rolling his sleeve down as he did so.

"My RAMM device?"

The Hunter-Killer pulled it from a pouch on his belt and handed it to Herr Doktor.

"Now, bring my enemies forward," commanded Megabyte.

A set of viral troops forced the two captives to advance while still on their knees. Megabyte recognized one instantly as being an analog of his Hunter-Killer. The other was unfamiliar and somewhat strange to look at. His skin was a pale peach color, and his hair was an unremarkable shade of chestnut brown. He had an athletic build, but there was nothing notable or impressive about his physique other than his above-average height. The lower half of his face was covered by a full beard, but Megabyte noted a square jaw, a medium chin, and a Greek nose.

"Now then," Megabyte said, "where shall we begin?"

* * *

 _Mainframe-One_

 _-120:00_

"Our first priority is getting the logic bomb removed," Matrix said as they all huddled around the floor map in the War Room. "So we have to trick Megabyte into thinking Enzo-Two has accomplished his mission."

"Okay, how do we do that?" AndrAIa asked.

"Enzo-Two will take Kevin and Enzo to Megabyte and present them as captives," Matrix said.

"I hate this plan already," Kevin said.

"Just hear me out," Matrix said. "What will Megabyte do if you bring him Kevin and Enzo?" he asked Enzo-Two.

"He'll question them first," Enzo-Two explained. "If he doesn't like what he hears, he'll have them interrogated for more information."

"But he will _remove_ the logic bomb, right?" asked Dot.

"Sure," Enzo-Two said. "Depending on how much time is left, he might even remove it first thing."

"So we wait until you've only got a few milliseconds left," Matrix said. "Once the bomb is disarmed, offer to conduct the interrogation." He then addressed Kevin and Enzo. "You two will need to be uncooperative. Maybe throw a few insults in there for good measure."

"What's to stop Megabyte from pounding our skulls in right then and there?" Kevin asked.

"Megabyte has underlings for that kind of thing," Enzo-Two said, "but the guards might rough you up a little."

"Swell," Kevin muttered.

"Once Enzo-Two leads you out of sight, he'll set you free and you'll all head to the Auxiliary Control Room. From there, you can activate the Principal Office lockdown protocol."

"You wanna seal Megabyte inside the Principal Office?" Bob asked. " _With_ them?"

"Cut him off from the bulk of his army," Phong said, "and you halve Megabyte's strength."

"Plus, from auxiliary control, they can activate internal security measures and turn them against the virals," Dot added.

"Box him in," Matrix said. "Whittle down his forces inside the Principal Office. He'll be easier to deal with then."

* * *

 _Mainframe-Two_

 _a.k.a. Megaframe_

"No introduction is necessary on your part, boy," Megabyte said to Enzo. "But you…" he said, turning his attention to the other prisoner. "Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

The prisoner remained obstinately silent. When too much time elapsed without a response, a viral binome struck him with his energy baton. The bearded sprite cried out in pain, startled by the sudden electrical surge.

"It will go much easier for you if you answer my questions promptly," Megabyte cautioned.

"My name is Kevin Sawyer," he replied.

"And can I assume you both come from the same version of Mainframe?"

"Yes," Kevin said.

"Excellent," said Megabyte. "And why did you come here?"

Again, stubborn silence from Kevin Sawyer, and again the guard hit him with an electric shock from his baton.

"Believe me," Kevin hissed through clinched teeth, "it was an accident."

"An accident?"

"We found the RAMM device, but we didn't know what it was for," Kevin explained, "so we started experimenting with it, and that's how we arrived in your version of Mainframe."

"You must take me for a fool," Megabyte said. "My double would never allow something like the RAMM device to fall into the hands of _inept_ _pests_."

"Bold statement coming from a guy with no legs," Enzo-One said.

Despite his discomfort, Kevin snorted with repressed laughter.

"I gotta know," Enzo-One continued, "has anyone ever hidden them before? I mean, like, have you ever had to go on a scavenger hunt to find your legs? That'd be a great practical joke." Enzo nodded toward the guard on his left. "This guy's thought about it. I can see the wheels turning in his noggin."

Both Kevin and Enzo were shoved facedown onto the floor and dealt continuous shocks from the energy batons, their cries of agony echoing up and down the Great Hall.

Finally, after a whole microsecond of torture, the guards let up.

"I can see more _intensive_ interrogation is necessary," Megabyte said, leaning back in his throne chair.

"My lord, allow me the privilege," Enzo-Two said. "By the time I'm done with them, they will beg to give you the information you want."

"Ah, my loyal Hunter-Killer," Megabyte said. "You don't disappoint. Take them to an interrogation cell and wring every bit of information from them. I want to know everything about where they come from: system defenses, the strength of their armed forces…and whether or not my double really sent them."

"You'll have all that and more, my lord," Enzo-Two said.

Kevin and Enzo were roughly hauled to their feet and forced to march through another set of tall double doors, Enzo-Two steering them from behind.

* * *

 _Mainframe-One_

 _-110:00_

"Where exactly are _you_ going to be while all this goes down?" asked Enzo-One.

"Bob and I will use our RAMM to enter Mainframe-Two's core room," Matrix explained. "From there, we'll open a portal to the Supercomputer and get help from the Guardians."

"That's…a really good idea," Bob said. "But only one of us should get reinforcements. I'm nullified in Mainframe-Two, and showing my face in the Supercomputer could cause problems."

"Fair enough," Matrix said. "I'll get the cavalry."

"Once Matrix is through the portal," Bob said, "I'll contact you three and we can all converge on Megabyte together."

* * *

 _Mainframe-Two_

 _a.k.a. Megaframe_

Enzo-Two unlocked their restraints, and the shackles clattered to the floor. Kevin rubbed his wrists and flexed his legs in an attempt to work out the soreness.

"Man, those batons _sting_ ," said Kevin.

"Think I struck a nerve with that bit about his legs?" Enzo-One asked.

"Yeah, mine," Kevin said, annoyed. "You may have oversold yourself a little back there."

"It got the job done," said Enzo-Two. "Megabyte expects me to interrogate you now."

"How long does that usually take?" asked Kevin.

"I've never had an interrogation take more than a microsecond," Enzo-Two replied.

"I guess that's why you never disappoint," Enzo-One said.

"We need to move fast," Kevin said quickly. "Auxiliary control. Which way?"

Enzo-Two led them to the end of the corridor where they took an elevator down three levels. Stepping out, they encountered a contingent of armed viral troops passing by.

"Hunter-Killer," said the sergeant, a zero binome, in greeting.

"Smiley," Enzo-Two acknowledged with a curt nod.

"What are you doing down here?"

"I'm taking these prisoners to an interrogation cell," Enzo-Two replied.

"This is a maintenance level," Smiley replied with narrow, suspicious eyes. "And why aren't your prisoners in restraints?"

Kevin noticed the other binomes get a tighter grip on their energy weapons. "Let me explain," he said, raising his hand. He tapped a key on the touch-sensitive surface of his bracer and his hand became encased in a metallic glove. An instant later, a wide-field energy beam was expelled from a round emitter in the palm, striking Sergeant Smiley and sending him rolling across the floor like a bowling ball.

"Look out," cried Enzo-Two. "He's loose!"

* * *

 _Mainframe-One_

 _-50:00_

Kevin stepped out of the elevator and entered Hugh Branch's lab. He immediately spotted AndrAIa at a nearby workbench.

"You wanted to see me?" Kevin asked.

"Yes!" the Game Sprite exclaimed. "I didn't want to send you into Mainframe-Two without some kind of protection, so I whipped up a few goodies that may come in handy."

"Goodies?" Kevin asked.

AndrAIa nodded excitedly, smiling. "Let me see your arm," she said.

Kevin held out his right arm. AndrAIa tapped the bronze surface of his bracer, and a touchscreen appeared.

"I put a toolkit in your clothing skin just in case," she said, typing commands. She held a vidpad against the bracer, and Kevin saw a green progress bar on his bracer touchscreen quickly fill up while code scrolled across the vidpad.

"There," AndrAIa said, pointing out the new controls. "Now, this key here will deploy the hand cannon."

"Hand cannon?"

"Um-hum," AndrAIa replied. "And the same key on the left bracer will activate the shield."

"Shield?"

"It should provide protection against most energy weapons, and some projectile weapons, too," she explained. "C'mon, let's test it out first."

AndrAIa pulled Kevin over to a concrete wall riddled with bullet holes and abutted with sandbags. Glancing behind him, he saw that he was standing in front of a bullseye. To his left, slumped against the wall, was an abused crash-test binome, the figure falling apart at the seams. It was also full of holes.

"AndrAIa," Kevin said, "are you sure this shield thing…y'know… _works?_ "

"Sure I'm sure," she replied. "You don't think I'd give you anything less than the best, do you?"

With that, she donned a pair of safety glasses and hearing protection, and took cover in a dugout covered by a reinforced metal wall.

"Oh, boy," Kevin muttered. He tapped the key on his left bracer and deployed his new energy shield. A metal glove, like a gauntlet, materialized over his hand. Inlaid into the top of a glove was a round glowing particle projector. The shield appeared, a semi-transparent barrier of blue energy. It was long and rectangular, and, held at the proper distance, the projection offered complete coverage of his body.

"Wow!" exclaimed Kevin. He practiced waving the shield around, trying to get a feel for its weight, but the projection was weightless, yet when he touched its blue surface, he felt something solid, something with a glassy texture.

"Ready, Kevin?" AndrAIa called from behind the metal wall.

"What? Oh, yeah, sure! Let's light this candle!"

Kevin got into a forward-leaning stance, holding his shield before him. The floor ahead of him opened up and a beam cannon appeared, aimed directly at him. The sound of it charging filled Kevin's ears, and he braced himself nervously. The cannon fired, its beam of angry red energy striking the shield. Kevin felt the force of the weapon trying to bend him backwards, but he kept pushing against it. He could see through the shield, the white hot spot on the other side where the beam was striking its surface. The energy spread across the shield like pressurized water from a fire hose.

The beam ceased, and Kevin stood upright.

"That was pretty cool," he said.

"We're not done, yet," he heard AndrAIa say.

"Huh?"

The beam cannon disappeared under the floor only to be replaced by a heavy machine gun with a spinning barrel.

"Now we see how well it resists bullets!"

"Wait," Kevin said, "you mean you don't already _know!?_ "

"Range is hot!"

The machine gun spun up and a stream of hot lead soon followed. Kevin leaned into the shield, watching as countless lead slugs flattened themselves against the impenetrable force shield and fell to the ground. The shield must have had some kind of kinetic dampening property because he barely felt any impact compared to the energy beam. After a few seconds, the machine gun stopped firing, its rotating barrel smoking and red hot.

AndrAIa appeared from behind the shielded area along with Hugh Branch.

"Well, I think we can consider that a successful test," Hugh said.

" _Test!_ " exclaimed Kevin.

"Why, of course," Hugh said. "The personal shield is a prototype. As is the wide-field energy pulse emitter in your other gauntlet."

Kevin tapped the key to deactivate the shield, and it vanished. "You could've warned me," he said to AndrAIa.

"Sorry, Kevin, but we're kind of in a rush here, and we still need to test the hand cannon."

"This equipment is the very best Mainframe has to offer, Dr. Sawyer," Hugh added. "I wouldn't dream of putting them into action in the field unless I was sure they were ready."

"Okay, okay," Kevin said. "Let's test the hand cannon."

Hugh and AndrAIa led Kevin over to another firing range where he could indulge in a little target practice. He activated the hand cannon, and his right hand was covered in a metal gauntlet with a particle emitter imbedded in the palm of the glove.

"You fire by tensing the muscles in your upper arm," AndrAIa explained. "Target assist does the aiming for you. All you have to do is point your hand in the general direction of whatever you're shooting at, but you need to keep your eyes on the target."

"Okay," Kevin said. He raised his hand, palm open, and aimed at the bullseye on the opposite wall. He tensed the muscles in his arm, and the cannon discharged a pulse of orange light. The wall exploded, and the recoil knocked Kevin right on his bitmap.

Propping himself into a sitting position, Kevin gazed at the disintegrated concrete wall. A team of binome technicians were staring at the crater, mouths agape. "I see why you call it a hand cannon," he said.

"We may need to adjust the energy output _just_ a smidge," Hugh said.

* * *

 _Mainframe-Two_

 _a.k.a. Megaframe_

Kevin deployed his shield just before the other virals started shooting, the blasts from their energy batons ricocheting off the translucent blue barrier. He aimed his hand cannon around the side and delivered a shot to each binome, knocking them unconscious.

"Nice work," Enzo-Two said after Kevin deactivated the shield.

"My _ascii!_ " exclaimed Enzo-One. "Since when do you carry personal weapons and shields?"

"Since AndrAIa gave them to me before we left," Kevin replied.

Enzo ground his teeth and cursed. "And what am I, a spruced null?"

"You can't even drive Bob's car without killing it," Kevin said.

Enzo-Two moved around Kevin and out of the elevator. "We need to hide these guys," he said, putting them all back on task. "There's a maintenance closet down the hall. Everyone grab a binome."

After locking the unconscious virals away, Enzo-Two continued to lead them to the Auxiliary Control Room.


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15 – Magic Bullet**

 _Mainframe-One_

 _-30:00_

Bob waited while Phong formatted another sample of anti-viral serum. Kevin and Matrix stood off in a corner of the infirmary, both men looking pensive and withdrawn. Bob understood their feelings. Kevin was afraid the cure would be fatal to Megabyte, and Matrix didn't even care to test it and find out. The Guardian supposed he was taking a big risk, but he knew that such an opportunity would never come again. If Megabyte-Two was cured, it was a practical certainty that the serum would also be effective on Megabyte-One, who had been laying immobilized inside a containment cell within the Supercomputer's Quarantine Section since his capture.

When the process was complete, the old sprite handed him a hypodermic dart, its pointed end capped. The Guardian stored the dart in a pouch hanging on his belt.

"You realize the cure may not work on Megabyte," Phong said.

"I know," Bob said, "but I've still got to try. If Hex could be reprogrammed for the good, so can Megabyte."

"Let me get this straight," Kevin said. "This guy tried to kill you for years then he stabbed you in the back and marooned you in the Web, which, from what I'm told, was _not_ a picnic. He almost got Dot to marry him by posing as you, and he invaded Mainframe with an army of mind-controlled Web creatures. Enter yours truly."

"That about sums it up, yeah," Bob said.

"Okay," Kevin said. "Granted, I don't know Megabyte as well as any of you, but the first time I met him, I _shot_ him. And you're trying to save him from…himself…?"

"Save your breath, Doc," Matrix said. "He's gonna do this whether we think it's a good idea or not."

"I know how it sounds," Bob said, "but I've always believed viruses could be reprogrammed. It's the cornerstone of all my theories, and Hex is the only virus who's ever been cured. I know it can be done, but replicating the conditions that cured her just isn't practical."

"I thought you found a cure for virals after you went back to the Supercomputer," said Matrix.

Bob shook his head. "I thought so, too," he said. "But we were only treating the symptoms: aggression, megalomania, sociopathy, malicious intent. We thought suppressing the traits and behaviors associated with viruses would lead to a cure, but it didn't. The virals we experimented on all suffered from a wide range of side effects after the treatment."

"What kind of side effects?" Kevin asked.

"Like severe clinical depression," Bob replied. "Insanity."

Phong's mouth hung open in dumbfounded shock. "How long have you known about this?" he finally asked after several moments of silence had elapsed.

"I shut down the experiments as soon as my colleagues in the Supercomputer reached out to me," Bob said. "That was minutes ago. When I realized what was happening, I convinced the Guardians to let the test subjects revert back to their viral state. Now they're all in Section Q, the Supercomputer's quarantine section, waiting to be deleted."

"That's why you're so desperate to test the serum on Megabyte," Kevin said. "You think it's going to be some kind of magic bullet."

"I've got to try," Bob said.

"Have you ever considered that viruses are evil, pure and simple?" asked Matrix. "You're not treating a medical condition. You're trying to change someone's nature!"

"I don't think we know enough about the nature of evil to judge whether someone is irredeemable," Bob said. "Besides, I've said that I'll delete Megabyte if it doesn't work."

"Have you ever killed before?" Kevin asked.

"Only to prevent someone else from being deleted," Bob said, "and only then in direct combat."

Kevin and Matrix shared a concerned look, as if their minds were on the same page for the first time ever.

"It's not that we don't trust you, Bob," Matrix said, "but you're not always right."

"That's why I have to do this," he replied. "I _need_ to know."

* * *

 _Mainframe-Two_

The Auxiliary Control Room was dark and poorly lit, and even with the lighting provided by the vidwindows in addition to the overhead spotlights, it was hard for Kevin to make out its physical dimensions. He had the impression of a room smaller than the War Room and less functional. There was a single workstation and three vidwindows. Enzo-Two stepped up to the terminal and began typing commands. Smaller vidwindows appeared, showing the different security systems installed throughout the building.

"Lockdown procedures…" he muttered. "Lockdown procedures…There."

He highlighted an option on the screen and held his finger over the "commit" key on the console.

"Ready?" he asked. "After this, we lose the element of surprise."

Enzo-One and Kevin nodded.

"Just make sure the Core Room is secure for when Bob and Matrix get here," Enzo-One said.

Enzo-Two typed some more commands into another terminal vidwindow. "Done," he said.

"Okay," Kevin said, taking a deep breath. "Let's do it."

Enzo-Two activated the lockdown protocol.

* * *

The transition into Mainframe-Two left Bob struggling to catch his breath. Even Matrix, the mighty renegade, was forced to his knees by the physical discomfort inherent to interdimensional travel.

"By the User," muttered Bob. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Good thing we didn't eat before we left," Matrix added. He breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth.

Bob stood upright and quickly looked around, working his jaw to pop his ears as he did so. The Core Room was empty, as they had suspected it would be. "I think we're clear," he said.

Matrix had already opened a vidwindow. "Internal security is still active. I can't divert core energy to make a portal without setting off an alarm in the War Room."

"They've gotta be close to auxiliary control," Bob said. "We just need to be patient."

"I just hope they didn't run into any trouble," Matrix said.

"No alarms," Bob noted. "That's a good sign. Maybe you should go ahead and boot into your uniform."

"Huh?"

"Your Guardian armor," Bob said.

"I know what you meant," said Matrix. "But why do I need to wear my uniform?"

"If you show up in the Supercomputer wearing civvies while claiming to be a Guardian, they might detain you for questioning. Remember, we need to make this quick."

"In other words: look the part," clarified Matrix. The renegade sighed, but he yielded to his mentor's reasoning. He tapped his icon, changing his clothing skin. Matrix hadn't worn his Guardian armor in hours, not since he was a little sprite, but the dark blue cadet's uniform conformed to his physical dimensions easily. He looked down at himself, and immediately felt self-conscious.

"What's up?" Bob asked.

"Nothing," Matrix replied. "It's just that I haven't worn this thing in a long, _long_ time."

"It still suits you," said Bob.

"I keep forgetting that I'm still only a cadet," Matrix said. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Won't my being a Guardian cadet just raise more questions?"

"If they scan your Guardian Protocol, they'll see it's a copy of my own," Bob said. "Just tell them you were deputized under Emergency Code 9510 and that you've been fighting Megabyte all this time."

"Close enough to the truth to be plausible," Matrix said.

The lights in the Core Room changed color from standard white to red with blinking yellow strobes, and a claxon started blaring. Matrix checked the vidwindow.

"They must've finally made it to auxiliary control," Matrix said. "The Principal Office is going into lockdown. Shields are up. Internal defenses are active. Multiple sections of the building have been sealed."

"See if you can get Kevin and Enzo on a vidwindow," Bob said.

Matrix opened a vidwindow to the Auxiliary Control Room, and Enzo-Two appeared on the screen.

"Good, you're in position," he said.

"You're a little behind schedule," Bob said.

"Couldn't be helped," Kevin said, moving into visual range of the vidwindow. "We ran into a few viral binomes on the way here."

"The P.O. is on lockdown," Enzo-Two said. "That's what's important. We're ready to move on to Phase Two."

"Copy and paste that," Matrix said. He began entering commands into his vidwindow terminal. "Diverting core energy. Tear formation in progress."

The Core Room lit up in a flash as a tear appeared in the center of the room accompanied by rumbling sound like a thunderstorm. Bob raised his keytool and took aim.

"Glitch: portal!"

The keytool expelled a beam of flickering orange energy from its cogwheel, stabilizing the tear into a glistening, spherical portal to the Supercomputer.

"Okay, I'll bring the cavalry," Matrix said, stepping towards the portal. "Good luck, Bob."

"Stay frosty," Bob said.

"You too."

Matrix entered the portal, and it closed behind him.

"Matrix is through," said Bob. "Now we focus on Megabyte."

"I've got him locked in his throne room: the Great Hall," said Enzo-Two. "I'm clearing a path for us, but there are pockets of viral troops everywhere. We'll have to fight our way through a few spots."

"Can you clear a route from the Core Room to auxiliary control?" Bob asked. "I'll rendezvous with you there, and we'll mount an assault together."

"We can't wait," replied Enzo-Two. "It'll be better if—"

The sound of weapons fire cut Enzo-Two off.

"Hit the deck," he heard Kevin yell.

Through the vidwindow, Bob saw the Auxiliary Control Room become a hailstorm of green energy bolts. One struck the vidwindow and the video feed turned to static.

"Enzo! Enzo, can you hear me?"

There was no response from the other end.


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16 – The Dawn Also Ends**

 _Mainframe-One_

 _-10:00_

Enzo-Two slapped the cuffs on Enzo-One. "Ouch," he said.

"Sorry."

"Do they have to be so tight?" Enzo-One asked.

"I'm a Hunter-Killer of the New Viral Dawn, remember?" asked Enzo-Two. "I don't care about your comfort."

They stood outside the Principal Office, ready to commence their ruse and infiltrate Mainframe-Two. Enzo-Two placed Kevin Sawyer in handcuffs next, ratcheting the bracelets tightly around his wrists.

"I just thought of something," Enzo-One said. "I can't believe I didn't think of it before now. Hexadecimal!"

"What about her?" asked Enzo-Two.

"Why not get her to fight with us?" asked Enzo-One. "She must hate Megabyte just as much as we do."

"Kid, Hexadecimal was deleted a long time ago," Enzo-Two said.

Enzo-One felt his heart break a little. "What? How?"

"Megabyte," Enzo-Two replied. "The two of them went to war not long after Bob and Dot got nullified. He captured her and did all kinds of experiments on her."

"That's how he made the RAMM device," Kevin said. "But what about after?"

"She broke loose and tried to escape," Enzo-Two continued. "But she was weak, nowhere near her usual power levels. Megabyte took her out with a couple of missiles from a squadron of ABCs, but not before she turned Hack and Slash into scrap along with half the squadron."

Enzo-One clinched his fists, the pain in his wrists forgotten. For a moment he had looked forward to the possibility of seeing Hexadecimal again, even knowing that it would be a different version of her. Their friendship hadn't lasted very long, but it had been memorable.

 _I simply adore children, but I could never eat a whole one_ …

Hex had given him his father back. There had been some shard of goodness within her even after she had gone viral again.

"That's…that's too bad," Enzo-One said, holding back a sob. "We could've used her help."

"I dunno," said Enzo-Two. "Hex had a few too many bugs in her buffer. She'd probably delete you as soon as look at you."

"Sure," Enzo-One said. "Maybe."

Matrix and Bob descended the steps from the entrance to the Great Hall along with Dot and AndrAIa.

Matrix held up the RAMM device. "Now you're sure you put this thing back together the right way?"

"Sure I'm sure," said Kevin. "Unless you call seventy-percent-sure unsure. Then I'm not sure." Kevin could feel waves of heat rolling off of Matrix, and the renegade gave him the death glare. "I'm _kidding_!" he said. "Every screw and circuit is exactly where it's supposed to be. As long as you select the right destination, you'll be fine."

Dot stepped up to Enzo and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I can't believe I'm letting you do this," she said. "A Game Cube would be safer."

"C'mon, sis, what's the worst that could—"

" _Don't_ even say it," Dot said, cutting him off.

"Everything'll be fine," Enzo-One reassured her. "If I get into a bind, I'll just hide behind Kevin. He'll make a good shield."

"Ugh," groaned the cybernaut. "I can just feel the love all around me."

"I hate to break up this Photoshop moment," Enzo-Two said, rolling up his sleeve. "But it's crunch time." He tapped the timer on his arm.

Dot gave Enzo a quick hug and then stood back.

Enzo-Two held his own RAMM device, and Kevin and Enzo reached out to touch it.

"Ready?" asked Enzo-Two.

Both Kevin and Enzo-One took deep breaths, preparing for the impending physical discomfort that accompanied travel between universes.

"Ready," they answered in unison.

Enzo-Two pressed the button to activate the RAMM device, and they disappeared.

* * *

 _Mainframe-Two_

When the shooting finally stopped, the Auxiliary Control Room looked like the firing range in Hugh Branch's workshop. The walls were pockmarked with holes from viral weapons fire. Kevin and Enzo-One were taking cover behind one side of the door, Enzo-Two was on the other.

"You in there," called a viral binome, "disarm and surrender. There is no escape."

Kevin activated his shield and, holding it in front of him, stepped into the doorway. The virals started shooting again as soon as he appeared. His shield absorbed the green energy bolts, and Kevin made a quick head count before ducking back behind the doorway.

"I count five in the hallway," he said.

Enzo-Two nodded and grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall next to him. He held it up. "Can you hit something that's not right in front of you?"

Kevin activated his hand cannon. "Just throw the spammed thing in the right direction," he growled.

Enzo-Two grinned and tossed the extinguisher out into the hall. Kevin quickly acquired the target as it hit the floor and rolled into the middle of the corridor. The viral troops watched dumbly as the fire extinguished rolled to a stop right in their midst. Kevin fired the hand cannon, the beam striking the extinguisher. There was an explosion and the viral troops were engulfed in a cloud of white mist. Using the cloud as cover, Enzo-Two ran into the hall and, one-by-one, disabled the viral troops. When the dust settled, all five binomes were lying unconscious on the floor of the hallway.

Enzo-One and Kevin emerged and inspected the Hunter-Killer's work. "I doubt SEAL Team Six could've done better," Kevin said.

"What's a SEAL Team?" asked Enzo-Two.

Enzo-One picked up an energy baton, slapped the end in his palm like a baseball bat. "If Dot asks, I was unarmed the whole time."

"Fair enough," Kevin said. "Now, let's get to Megabyte's Throne Room, kick his bitmap, and go home. I've already had enough of Mainframe-Two."

Following Enzo-One's example, Enzo-Two confiscated an energy weapon of his own. "Follow me."

* * *

Megabyte reattached his legs to his torso and climbed out of his throne chair. The virus inspected an array of vidwindows, all of which were frozen and unresponsive. He swiped them aside in frustration and began barking orders.

"Get me a working vidwindow," he commanded, "I want to know who put the Principal Office on lockdown!"

As if in answer to his question, the doors at the far end of the Great Hall burst open, drawing Megabyte's attention. His Hunter-Killer emerged from beyond along with the two prisoners, the other Enzo Matrix and Kevin Sawyer.

They were all armed.

"What is the meaning of this?" Megabyte shouted.

"Take a wild guess, you pompous ascii," said Enzo-Two.

The few viral binomes who constituted Megabyte's personal guard moved to surround the attackers, but Megabyte waved them away.

"Maintain your positions," Megabyte said with narrowed eyes. "I'll deal with this traitor and his ilk personally."

The virus extended his claws and, with the speed of an attacking leopard, rushed his three new enemies. Kevin deployed his shield and fired his hand cannon, but Megabyte dodged each blast. He rammed Kevin's shield with the force of a three-hundred-pound defensive tackle, knocking the human off his feet and to the ground. Enzos One and Two attacked next, wielding their batons like clubs, delivering a shock to Megabyte with each blow. The virus was unprepared to take on two Enzos, who matched him in both ferocity and ability. Every time the virus tried to counter one sprite's attack, the other would complete it, catching him off guard. He would slash with his claws, only to be blocked with a baton and then struck by another at a vulnerable spot on his body. This went on for several nanoseconds. It was like fighting two Hunter-Killers at once, and Megabyte felt himself begin to tire.

Then Kevin Sawyer nailed him in the chest with a blast from his hand cannon, sending Megabyte reeling. The virus, clutching his dented chest, shouted to his soldiers:

"Don't just stand there, you fools!" he exclaimed. "Defend your Lord and Master!"

The troops assembled into a line and opened fire. Kevin activated his shield again, and the Enzos took cover behind him.

"You just had to say it, didn't you," Kevin said to Enzo-One.

"What are you talking about?" Enzo-One asked.

Kevin gave his best Enzo Matrix impression. "'I'll get behind Kevin. He'll make a good shield.'"

Both Enzo-One and Enzo-Two began to laugh. Kevin mowed the line of virals down with a sustained blast from his hand cannon. Wheezing, and trying to catch his breath, Megabyte pushed himself to his feet and then launched into a monologue.

"You think you can defeat me? _Me!?_ I am the New Viral Dawn! This system is mine to command. Mine to control. You are—"

 _Tink._

Startled, Megabyte cried out in pain. Looking down, he saw a hypodermic dart sticking out of his leg. "What is this!?" he yelled.

Bob emerged from the shadows on the other side of the room, Glitch raised and at the ready. "I just couldn't stand to listen to another speech," he said.

"Bob!" cried Megabyte. He glared at Enzo-Two. "You brought him here, didn't you, _boy?_ I should have foreseen this." The virus reached down and jerked the dart out of his leg. "You can't possibly hope to win, Guardian. With a single command my forces will reign fire down upon you!" He extended his claws once more. "But I think I'll delete you myself, seeing as how a Game Cube robbed me of the chance before!"

He made to leap and tackle Bob, but Kevin blasted him with his hand cannon. Bob followed with an attack of his own.

"Glitch: containment field."

Bob enclosed the virus in a spherical energy barrier that flexed like a rubber membrane as Megabyte tried to claw his way out.

"Well, that's that," Kevin said. "Now all we have to do it wait for Matrix to get here with the Guardians."

"How long do you think it'll take for the cure to work," Bob asked.

"I don't know," Kevin replied. "With Enzo-Two, the effect was almost instantaneous."

"I _will_ get out, Bob," Megabyte roared, his voice muffled by the containment field. "This won't hold me forever."

"He doesn't sound very cured," Enzo-One said.

"No," Bob admitted. "He doesn't."

"My army will lay waste to the Principal Office to rescue me," Megabyte said. "And when I'm done with you, I'll invade your Mainframe and burn it to the motherboard!"

"We obviously can't let _that_ happen," Kevin said.

Bob sighed, turning his eyes to the ground. "There's no other option," he said. "He has to be deleted."

Enzo-Two stepped forward. "I'll do it," he said. "He belongs to this reality, this Mainframe. I should be the one to do it."

Megabyte fell to his knees, his fists sliding against the wall of the field. "You…you…what's happening…?"

They watched in stunned silence as a transformation took place. It began with Megabyte's face. His skin lost its metallic sheen and took on the consistency of flesh. His head fin dissolved into a mane of red hair. Slowly but surely, other features followed: a handsome Roman nose, a wide chin, a set of thin green lips, bushy red eyebrows, and a set of ears. Next, mechanical claws became hands. His legs fused to his hips, and his torso became muscled and fleshy. The process took several nanoseconds, but when it was over, they all stared in awe at the naked sprite on the floor before them.

"Glitch: disengage."

The containment field vanished, and the reborn Megabyte looked up, his eyes white with green irises and black pupils. His skin was the same dark blue as before, absent now the polish of tin. He looked down at himself, eyes wide. He touched his face.

"What…is this?" he asked. "What…did you do to me?"

"Glitch: scan." The keytool made a series of computational noises and displayed the results of a virus scan on its transformed screen. "It worked," he whispered. "The cure _worked_."

"Cure?" asked Megabyte.

"How do you feel?" Kevin asked.

Megabyte seemed to ponder the question. "I don't know. But I know I feel…different."

Glitch beeped, indicating an incoming video transmission. The keytool's cogwheel expanded and Matrix appeared on the screen.

"Bob! Are you okay?" asked Matrix.

"Everything's under control, Matrix," Bob said. "How are those reinforcements coming along?"

"I brought three squadrons of Attack Cruisers and a Viral Incident Team," Matrix said. "We just entered the system from the energy sea. Megabyte's forces are already moving to intercept us."

Bob looked at Megabyte, who was now sitting on his knees. "You say you've changed, Megabyte," he said. "Do you feel like going to war with the Guardians?"

The thought seemed abhorrent to the reformed virus. "I…no. _No!_ I don't want a war!"

"Then tell your army to stand down and surrender to the Guardians," Bob said. "It's the only way to avoid a bloodbath."

"Yes," said Megabyte. "Yes, of course. You're right. But will they listen to me like this?"

"You're still their leader," Kevin said. "Just send an audio transmission. After that, we'll tell you how to manufacture the cure to disinfect everyone in Mainframe."

"Alright," Megabyte said. "I'll do it. But I need a vidwindow."

Bob said to Matrix through Glitch, "Standby, Matrix. We're going to try and get Megabyte's army to surrender."

"Copy that," Matrix replied. "Make it quick."

Bob closed the channel and ordered Glitch to terminate the Principal Office lockdown. The lights resumed their normal hue, and they heard the shields power down. Megabyte stood up, opened a vidwindow, and began transmitting an audio message to his commanders:

"All viral troops, this is Megabyte. Stand down alert status. I repeat, terminate all combat operations at once. The armed forces are to surrender to the Guardians immediately."

A cacophony of confused voices responded, asking for clarification. "You all heard me," Megabyte said, his voice taking on a more authoritarian tone. "I order you to surrender. The New Viral Dawn is ended. So says your Lord and Master."

Nanoseconds passed, then each viral commander answered in the affirmative.

Bob received another transmission from Matrix. "You really did it, Bob! The virals are all announcing their surrender."

Bob breathed a sigh of relief. "We did it."

"That's great," Enzo-Two said. "Now can we get naked Megabyte some clothes, please?"

* * *

The skies of Mainframe-Two were filled with Guardian cruisers. As they stood outside the entrance to the Great Hall, Kevin saw one cruiser break formation and come in for a landing near the steps to the Principal Office. The rear hatch opened and out stepped Matrix, walking tall in his cadet Guardian uniform.

"The Guardians are deploying all throughout the city," he announced. "Virals are being isolated and contained."

"We can disinfect them," Bob said. "Kevin is going to give Enzo-Two instructions on how to recreate the cure."

"It worked on Megabyte?" Matrix asked. "Really?"

"See for yourself," Bob said, pointing up the steps. Standing in the open doorway of the Principal Office was a tall, slim figure with blue skin and red hair. He wore a blue suit and had his head bowed slightly, the wind catching the tails of his long brown coat. He seemed more statue than sprite.

"That's Megabyte?" Matrix asked, awe in his voice.

"It is now," Bob replied.

"Whoa," muttered the renegade. "And is he…stable?"

"Seems to be," Bob said. "We got him to order the surrender."

"I guess that's a step in the right direction," Matrix admitted. "Well, Bob, you did it. You ended the war before it got started. This time, I'm glad I was wrong."

Kevin Sawyer emerged from within the Principal Office and descended the stairs along with Megabyte. The human scientist handed Enzo-Two a vidpad.

"This contains the instructions for creating the cure," Kevin said. He also handed him a vial of red fluid. "This is my blood. All you have to do is copy the B-cell and harvest the antibodies."

Enzo-Two took the vidpad and the vial and then looked at Megabyte. "You wanna handle this?" he asked.

The reprogrammed virus raised an eyebrow. "Me?"

"I'm not much of a scientist," Enzo-Two said. "My expertise is a little less… _intellectual._ And you do need something to do now that you're not the Prince of Power anymore."

Megabyte winced at mention of his grandiose moniker, but he took the pad and vial. "I'll begin immediately." He retreated up the steps and into the Principal Office without another word.

"Was that a good idea?" Matrix asked. "Putting him in charge of making the cure?"

"It's a courageous thing to trust other people," Kevin said.

"Why's that?" Matrix asked.

"Because other people can hurt you."

"Tell me about it," Enzo-Two said, casing a sideways glance at his Mainframe-One counterpart. "So, I guess you guys will be leaving soon."

"You gonna be okay, kid?" Matrix asked.

"The hard part's over," Enzo-Two said. "Now it's just a matter of rebuilding Mainframe."

"I think you're up for it," Bob said.

The two Enzos faced one another and, in a final goodbye, shook hands.

"Thanks," Enzo-Two said.

"You're welcome," Enzo-One replied. "Take care of yourself."

"You too, and try not to screw things up with that blonde chick. I think she really likes you."

The four travelers from Mainframe-One gathered around Bob, who was already programming the RAMM device for their return journey.

"Here we go again," Bob groaned.

"You get used to it," Kevin said.

"Nobody ate while they were here, did they?" asked Matrix.

Everybody sighed a deep breath. "Let's just get this over with," said Enzo-One.

Everyone touched the RAMM. Bob pressed the button to trigger the transition, and they were gone.


	17. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER 17 – One Last Piece of Unfinished Business**

The team gathered together before the Universal Nullifier. The ugly weapon was powered and primed, ready to fire. With their mission to Mainframe-Two accomplished, there was only one last piece of unfinished business left to complete.

"Are we sure we want to do this?" asked Kevin. "We're giving up interdimensional travel. The possibilities are literally endless. There's no telling what we could learn exploring the Multiverse."

"And we could start another war with another Megabyte," Matrix said. "Or someone worse. What if there's a universe out there where Deamon's still around?"

"What about Pythias?" asked Enzo. "Or Hexadecimal? We could use the RAMM to see them again. Dot, what if we found a universe where mom is still alive?"

The sighed and bowed her head, as if she had already considered that suggestion. "Enzo…they're gone."

"But they don't have to be," he replied.

"Actually, I think that's why we have to use the Nullifier," AndrAIa said. "Think about how easy it would be to drive ourselves crazy looking at all the different ways our lives could've turned out. It's too much. We'd eventually become resentful of what we have here, especially if we discovered other realities we liked better than our own."

"We need to be content with what we have here," Phong said. "The lives we live in this reality are our first, best destinies."

"AndrAIa and Phong are right," Bob said. "Our universe is already big enough, and the risks are just too great."

Everyone looked at one another, searching for consensus, and they found it.

"Okay, Welman," Kevin said. "Let 'er rip."

The nullbot stepped up to the control panel and entered the activation code. A hum filled the room, increasing in pitch and volume over several nanoseconds.

"Field strength is at eighty percent…" announced Welman, "…ninety percent…one-hundred percent!"

The weapon fired, and for a moment the whole room took on a violet hue, but the effect only lasted a nanosecond. The RAMM device, which had been hanging from Kevin's belt, erupted in a flash of sparks. The scientist danced around, trying to claw the device off his belt. It finally clattered to the floor, and sputtered its last sparks of life. It remained a smoking, charred hunk of plastic and circuits.

"Well, that was dramatic," Kevin said, picking it up and inspecting the device. "It's dead all right," he announced, tapping the keys.

"Then it's over," Dot said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like celebrating."

"Wow!" Matrix said playfully. "Dot Matrix feels like celebrating. What an occasion!"

Dot gently elbowed her brother in the ribs. "I've already reserved the diner. Everyone's invited. Doors open at 1700."

Everyone agreed to meet later, and the group broke up, going about their usual routines. Kevin handed the RAMM device to Welman. "I guess it'll make a nice paperweight."

"I know you're disappointed," Welman said, "but we had to use the Nullifier. We simply can't risk another incursion."

Kevin nodded. "I know. It's just…well, I can't stop thinking about what would've happened if I had found a universe where my wife and brother are still alive. Would I try to stay there with them?"

Welman waited for an answer. "And?" he prodded.

"I don't know," Kevin said with a sigh and a shrug. "It's probably a good thing we destroyed the RAMMs. I was really tempted to find out."

* * *

Dot returned to her station in the War Room. She was eager to put the latest crisis behind them and resume a normal tempo. It was hard enough being without having to worry about parallel universes and time warps and superviruses threatening to wreck the Net. Dot shook her head, wondering when her life had become so crazy. Then Bob entered the room.

"Dot, can we talk?" he asked.

"Sure, Bob," Dot replied.

"Not here," said Bob. "In private. Can you swing by my apartment before heading to the Diner?"

"Is everything okay?" Dot asked, removing her reading glasses.

"I just think we need to talk," said Bob. He had on his serious face. It made Dot nervous. "My apartment? Let's say 1500?"

Dot nodded. "Okay. I'll see you then."

Those words: _We need to talk._ Why did they always seem to carry a negative connotation? The fact that he wanted to talk with her before everyone was supposed to meet for drinks at the Diner, in celebration of their _third_ victory over Megabyte, made her even more uneasy. Dot found herself distracted for the rest of her shift in the War Room, and when she did finally find herself zipping over to Bob's apartment, she felt that her stomach had turned to leaden ice.

"Hey, Dot," Bob said, stepping aside to let her in.

"Hey," she replied. "I came as soon as my shift ended."

"You didn't need to rush or anything," Bob said.

"So then…everything's okay?"

"Well, yeah," Bob replied. "Everything's okay, but maybe they could be better?"

"Was that a question?" Dot asked. "Or a statement?"

Bob rubbed his forehead. He seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words. "I…" He huffed a laugh. "I don't know. Do you want to sit down?"

She let him guide her over to the large couch in his living room, and they sat side-by-side.

"I guess I meant things between _us_ could be better," Bob said.

Dot braced herself. She had been expecting a conversation like this—dreading was more like it—but she was also surprised that it hadn't come sooner. Regardless, she asked, "What brought this on?"

"When Kevin and I went to the quantum system," Bob began, "we saw things."

"What kinds of things?" Dot asked.

"Imagine if you caught a glimpse of all the different ways your life could've turned out if things were different. Like if you'd made different choices, or if people around you had made different choices. I saw that. _All_ of that. I mean, I didn't just see it. I lived it, too. I was aware of all those other lives. Am I making sense?"

No wonder Bob was having trouble putting his thoughts into words. He was trying to describe something that was inherently indescribable.

"Sort of," Dot said, "but it's hard to imagine what that was like."

Bob rubbed his chin thoughtfully. _He's trying to choose his next words carefully,_ thought Dot.

"You were with me in a lot of those other lives," Bob said. "We were together."

"That's nice," Dot said smiling.

"I think so, too," replied Bob. "That's why I wanted to talk." He turned so that they were face-to-face. "I don't want to wait anymore, Dot. I want to get married."

Dot took a shaky breath and looked down at her hands. "Bob…things are good between us. _Really_ good."

"But they could be better," Bob said. "I've seen it. I know what we're missing out on."

Dot swallowed the lump in her throat and repressed the instinct to flee, to find a rock somewhere and crawl under it. "I'm scared," she whispered, looking up at him. "I'm scared I'll mess it up again."

"I know you want things to be perfect," Bob said. "You want it all to go according to plan."

Dot smiled and croaked a sad laugh.

"But things don't have to be perfect," Bob continued. "If everything was perfect, people wouldn't need each other."

 _Wisdom for the ages_ , Dot thought. Bob tilted Dot's chin up with his finger. Their eyes met, and a strange thought popped into Dot's mind. _I hope they have Bob's eyes._

"So what do you say?" Bob asked. "Do you need me enough to marry me?"

Dot nodded quickly. "Yeah, I do," she said, voice cracking. "I really, really do."

He kissed her then.


	18. Chapter 18

**EPILOGUE**

The celebration at Dot's Diner was just getting started when Bob and Dot walked in. A large bottle of champagne was chilling in a silver bucket on the counter, and Cecil was carrying a tray of flutes. He spotted his employer and immediately sped over to offer her a glass of bubbly.

"Thank you, Cecil," Dot said, taking two flutes and handing one to Bob. "Whose idea was champagne?"

"Mine," AndrAIa chimed. "I may not be able to indulge, but I got the distinct impression we needed something stronger than energy shakes after this one."

"So where's my drink?" Enzo said.

Everyone present eyed the teenager with the sort of paternal skepticism only adults were capable of.

"Not even a _sip?_ " Enzo whined.

"What do you think, dad?" asked Dot, a note of amusement in her voice.

"I suppose a little sip wouldn't hurt," Professor Matrix said.

Enzo's face lit up.

"A _sip_ , mister," the professor emphasized.

Reluctantly, Cecil handed a glass of champagne to the young sprite. "Try not to get wasted," whispered the French server.

The Diner was empty except for the War Room staff, Dot having reserved the restaurant exclusively for their purposes. Matrix looked at his champagne with mild contempt, probably wishing it was something stronger like Rom or I/O. AndrAIa was by his side, as usual, sitting on a barstool with an energy shake in one hand and absentmindedly rubbing her pregnant tummy with the other. Welman held his glass expectantly, as if waiting for someone to make a toast. Even Phong had chosen to leave the Principal Office, a rare event, to join his friends and family. Kevin Sawyer sat on the stool next to AndrAIa, his champagne fizzing away on the bar. His smile was jovial as he made idle conversation with Enzo.

 _Two best friends sharing a drink after an adventure,_ Dot thought, and she smiled.

"What shall we drink to?" Phong asked.

"I know," Enzo said suddenly. He raised his glass. "Here's to kicking Tin Butt's bitmap for a third time."

There was a round of "Here here," and everyone clinked glasses and took a sip.

Dot stepped close to Bob and felt his arm snake around her waist. "I'm not sure this is the best time to make an announcement," Dot said, "but—"

"You're getting married!" AndrAIa blurted, her expression excited and expectant.

All eyes were on Bob and Dot. They looked at one another and then nodded at the group, all smiles.

"I _knew_ it!" AndrAIa squealed.

"Congratulations!" Kevin said. "It's about time, if you ask me."

"I'll drink to that," Enzo said, raising his champagne glass to take another drink.

AndrAIa quickly snatched the flute out of his hand. "Nice try, slick," AndrAIa said. She handed him her energy shake. "You get the kid friendly stuff from here on."

"Aw, man," he mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Welman stepped up and embraced his daughter. "I'm so happy for you, princess," he said. "And for you, young man," he added, shaking Bob's hand.

"Here's to Mainframe's number one couple," Matrix said, raising his champagne glass.

There was another round of clinking glasses and laughter. Almost no one noticed when the stranger walked into the diner.

But Cecil noticed. "Madame, I am afraid zis establishment is closed for a private engagement."

"Sorry to crash the party, Cecil," she replied, "but I've really gotta talk to Dot."

Hearing her name dropped, Dot turned to confront the stranger. She appeared to be a little older than Dot herself, and she was very beautiful. Her strawberry red hair was tied into a ponytail that hung down to the center of her back, and bangs covered her forehead. She had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, which was small and slightly upturned. Her eyes were the color of faded blue jean, but they stood out against the color of her skin, which was pale and flawless apart from the freckles on her face.

The stranger's clothing skin was a one-piece suit of body armor consisting of different shades of purple with silver plating around the abdomen, knees, shoulders, and elbows. Much like Dot's own tactical clothing skin, it looked like it was designed to be both functional and comfortable.

"Can I help you?" Dot asked.

"This is going to sound crazy," the stranger said. "I know you, but you don't know me. My name is—"

There was a sound of glass shattering against the floor, and everyone turned to find that Kevin had dropped his champagne. The cybernaut was on his feet, his jaw slack, eyes wide in disbelief. All the color had drained from his face.

"It can't be," he muttered. His eyes were glued to the face of the stranger.

"What's the matter?" asked Bob.

Kevin stepped closer, his movements clunky, like his body was having trouble following commands from his brain.

"Jess?" he said. His voice was hoarse, weak, and there was an undercurrent of desperation in it. "Jessie?"

The stranger examined his face, eyes narrow, as if she were trying to recognize a face she had once known. Then her face became ashen and she stepped back, struck, it appeared, by her own recollection, and her face transformed into a mask of weeping sadness.

"Kevin."

Kevin rushed to catch her. He was in motion even before the others realized she was fainting. He caught the stranger in his arms, cradling her as she collapsed.

"It's impossible," Kevin said as he took a closer look at her face. "It can't be—"

Then he laid his hands upon the RAMM device handing from a loop on her belt. It was blackened, charred, and clearly nonfunctional.

"Oh, my God," he said.

"What is it, Kevin?" Dot asked. "You act like you know her."

"I do know her," he said, and again, his voice was hollow. "She's Jessica Sawyer. My wife."

* * *

 **Author's Post Script**

Well, folks, that's the end of the latest installment of The Virtual Man adventures. I hope you all enjoyed the journey as much as I did. There will be another installment, but I can't say for sure when I'll get around to writing it. I finish college next spring, and I'm also writing a series of original time travel stories which I hope to publish as a compendium someday. I'd like to thank everyone who commented on The Parallel Crossing. It's always nice to be complimented on a creative work like this. Stay frosty, my friends.


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